Family Tree #2: Holton Cemetery Multi-Cache
Family Tree #2: Holton Cemetery
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Genealogy is my other hobby and it has taken me to almost as many cemeteries as geocaching. A combination of the two seems like a natural fit. This cache will be part of an unconnected series of caches in cemeteries where I have a family connection. The cache contains an unactivated geocoin for the FTF. As always with cemetery caches, please be respectful and no night time caching allowed.
The Family Tree series:
Family Tree #1: Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery
Family Tree #2: Holton Cemetery
Family Tree #3: North Cedar Cemetery
Family Tree #4: Denison Cemetery
Family Tree #5: Muscotah Cemetery
Family Tree #6: St. Ann's Cemetery
Family Tree #7: Pioneer Cemetery
Family Tree #8: Jenkins' (AKA: Vienna) Cemetery
Family Tree #9: Saint John's Cemetery
Family Tree #10: St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery
This series of ten caches is now spread over five counties in northeast Kansas. There may be one or two others that eventually appear, but ten seems like a good place to stop. There are currently nine multis and one reverse wherigo in the series.
The second installment in the series takes you to my hometown cemetery.
Holton Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Jackson county. There are two Medal of Honor recipients, a couple of Major League Baseball players, a U.S. Congressman, and numerous veterans of the Civil War including a Swiss immigrant who served as a bodyguard to Abraham Lincoln. His name was Samuel Segrist and Lincoln reportedly told him to not accompany the president and his wife to Ford's Theater the night of April 14, 1865.
Also buried here, are three generations of my paternal grandparents and that will be the main focus of this tour through the cemetery.
STAGE ONE
The posted coordinates will take you to the burial location of my great-grandparents, Robert and Daisy. Their son, Ross, is buried next to them.
Robert was the great-grandson of an Irish immigrant and was born in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Daisy Ann McGuire was the 4th of 11 children, born to a Civil War veteran. Her paternal grandfather was a country doctor who practiced medicine west of Holton during the 1860s and 1870s.
Robert and Daisy had six children. Their fifth child was my grandmother. My dad has told me many times that after Daisy passed away, Robert walked about two miles every day to visit and tend the grave, until he passed away six years later.
Robert and Daisy
You will need the information you find on Robert and Daisy's tombstone to find the coordinates for Stage Two, which is located at
N 39 27.ABC W 095 45.DEF
A: the last digit of Robert's year of death MINUS the last digit of Daisy's year of death
B: the last digit of Daisy's year of birth PLUS the first digit of Daisy's year of death
C: the last digit of Robert's year of birth
Checksum for ABC is 22
D: the third digit of Robert's year of death
E: the last digit of Robert's year of death
F: the third digit of Robert's year of birth
Checksum for DEF is 20
STAGE TWO
Here you will find the final resting place of some of my shirttail relation. His initials were A.V.D. He is not a direct ancestor, but he is family and has a unique maker that I felt like sharing with you. My relationship calculator tells me that he was the husband of my second great grand aunt. She passed away several years before him and is buried elsewhere. He is buried here with his second wife, Dorothy. He has two markers. One is a standard headstone that he shares with Dorothy. The other marker had another use prior to being placed here and the engraving tells how he used it....pretty cool, huh? The business is still in operation today.
Use the information on the headstone to find the coordinates for stage three. It is located at
N 39 27.GHI W 095 45.JKL
G: the number of letters in their LAST name
H: fourth digit of A.V.D.'s year of death PLUS the fourth digit of Dorothy's year of death
I: fourth digit of Dorothy's year of birth
Checksum for GHI is 21
J: 4th digit of Dorothy's year of death MINUS the 4th digit of A.V.D.'s year of death
K: third digit of the year of A.V.D.'s year of death
L: last digit of the year of A.V.D.'s year of death
Checksum for JKL is 10
STAGE THREE
This stage will bring you to the final resting place of my great-great grandparents, William and Ida.
William was born in Illinois and spent most of his life in Iowa and Nebraska. Ida was the great-granddaughter of a Loyalist who fled to Canada during the American Revolution. She was born in Canada and immigrated to America with her parents at a young age.
William and Ida
Their only son and his wife, Leona, my great-grandparents, are buried next to them.
My great-grandfather worked hard most of his life at several odd jobs. His father lost most of the land he inherited to bad land deals. My great-grandmother was born in Iowa. Her great-grandfather was killed during a Civil War battle in Arkansas. She was the descendant of multiple passengers who arrived at Plymouth Rock aboard the Mayflower in 1620, although I don't believe she was ever aware of that during her lifetime. Visits to her house when I was a child were always "interesting" thanks to the "outdoor plumbing". 
My great-grandparents with my grandfather and his sister
William and Ida's headstone is difficult to read, so please direct your attention to the headstone of their son and his wife, Leona, and use that information to find the location of stage four, which is located at
N 39 27.MNO W 095 45.PQR
M: 3rd digit of the year of Leona's death MINUS the 1st digit of her year of death
N: 3rd digit of the year of Leona's birth MINUS the last digit of her husband's year of death
O: 4th digit of the year of his death
Checksum for MNO is 16
P: 4th digit of the year of Leona's birth
Q: 4th digit of the year of Leona's death
R: the number of letters in his first name
Checksum for PQR is 16
STAGE FOUR
Almost there! This is the last stop of your tour. Here you will gather the information you need to decipher the location of the cache.
This is the final resting place of my grandparents. Their son, Lee, and their daughter, Shirley, are buried next to them.
My grandparents had six children and spent most of their married life together on a farm east of Holton. I spent many Sunday afternoons exploring every square foot of that farm as a child. I also spent many of those days listening to Kansas City Royals baseball games on an old transistor radio with my grandfather.
My grandparents
You will need to calculate a projection from this stage to find the location of the cache. MAKE NOTE OF THE DECIMAL POINTS IN BOTH THE DISTANCE AND THE BEARING
The cache is located STU.V feet at WX.Y degrees from this stage.
S: 3rd digit of my grandmother's year of birth
T: 3rd digit of my grandmother's year of death
U: 4th digit of my grandfather's year of death
V: 2nd digit of my grandfather's year of birth
Checksum for STUV is 19
W: 4th digit of my grandfather's year of birth MINUS the 1st digit of his year of death
X: 4th digit of my grandfather's year of birth
Y: 3rd digit of my grandmother's year of birth
Checksum for WXY is 7
There is an unactivated geocoin waiting for the FTF.
Now go find that ammo can!!!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Lbh'ir fcrag rabhtu gvzr ybbxvat qbja.
Cyrnfr ercynpr nf sbhaq.