GC6GE8B Family Tree #6: St. Ann's Catholic Cemetery (Multi-cache) in Kansas, United States created by DrPowercat

GC6GE8B ▼

A cache by DrPowercat Message this owner

Hidden : 4/20/2016

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Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

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 a CONNECTED series of caches in cemeteries where I have a family connection. As always with cemetery caches, please be respectful, no night time caching allowed, and no searching for the cache if there is a service in progress.

St. Ann's Catholic Cemetery is a small cemetery in the southwest corner of Effingham, Kansas. It is located directly across the street from the parish church and rectory. Many of the older burials in this parish cemetery are Irish and German immigrants who worked on the railroad and chose the offer of cheap land. They then settled the land, became farmers and raised families.
I have a 4x great grandmother, one set of 3x great-grandparents, two sets of 2x great-grandparents and one great grandfather buried in this cemetery. Because these were large families with numerous descendants, it is my estimation that I am related to at least half of the people buried in this cemetery.
You will be visiting the final resting places of my direct ancestors. This will involve finding four different markers, so there are four stages in the cemetery. The fifth and final stage is the cache and it is located outside of the cemetery, but is only a short drive away.

STAGE ONE
The posted coordinates will take you to the burial location of my gggg-grandmother. It is a short upright stone with a cross on top and the last three lines credit her son, Michael, for erecting the stone. I do not know much about her. She was born in Ireland before 1800. I'm not sure how many children she had. She likely immigrated to America during the Irish potato famine in the 1840s. Her husband died several years before she died and I do not know where he is buried. She has one daughter buried here. You will need to answer the following questions to find where she is buried with her husband. That is stage two and it is located at:
N 39 31.ABC W 095 24.DEF
A: 1st digit of the day she died
B: last digit of her age when she died
C: sum of the two digits of the day she died
Checksum for ABC is 6
D: 4th digit of the year she died MINUS the 3rd digits of the year she died
E: total number of letters in her first name
F: 2nd digit of the day she died
Checksum for DEF is 9

STAGE TWO
Here you will find my ggg-grandparents. Their last name begins with a "C" and they are buried with their daughter, Mary, who died as an adult. As a side note, the daughter's husband is buried next to them. He has a unique stone, but there is no engraving on the stone to indicate his name or when he died.
They were both born in Ireland. She was born in County Carlo. He was born in County Roscommon.
There are many myths surrounding him. He was rumored to have been a wanted man by the British and had to leave Ireland to avoid capture. I'm not sure what his crimes were, but he survived the Irish Potato Famine and Ireland was under the control of the British empire at that time. He is also rumored to have fought for the Union under an assumed name, shortly after his arrival in America. He left his transgressions behind, though, and went on to raise thirteen children with my ggg-grandmother on a farm in Atchison county.

My ggg-grandparents
You will need to gather some information from their stone to answer the following questions and move on to stage three, which is located at
N 39 31.GHI W 095 24.JKL
G: last digit of the year SHE was born
H: first digit of the day SHE was born
I: total number of letters in the month that HE was born
Checksum for GHI is 5
J: 3rd digit of the year HE died
K: 2nd digit of the day SHE was born
L: 4th digit of the year SHE died
Checksum for JKL is 11

STAGE THREE
Here you will find my gg-grandparents, Edward and Mary, buried with two of their sons, one of whom was my great-grandfather. Edward, sr. was the grandson of a veteran of the American Revolution who moved here from southern Pennsylvania. He was married to three women, all named Mary. Each of the first two died after childbirth. His third wife, my gg-grandmother, was a tough Irishwoman who had three children. She immigrated to America with her mother and brothers. She worked as a nannie for several years in Chicago and saved enough money to buy some land in Kansas. The original 80 acres that she bought in the 1860s is still owned by her descendants today. Her brothers are rumored to have rode with the Youngers and she was known to have a bit of temper. Their cabin was close to the railroad tracks and she often had chickens killed by the trains, so she would grease the tracks and make it impossible for the train to stop. I don't think it saved any chickens, but I'm sure it made her happy.
Their oldest son was my great-grandfather. His wife is buried with her parents and is the subject of Family Tree #1: Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery. I believe he had aspirations and goals of doing anything other than what he ended up doing with his life. He studied medicine with a cousin in St. Joseph, Missouri. He never became a physician, but I am told he helped many people obtain pain medications in the days before there was a CVS or Walgreens on every corner. He participated in the Oklahoma land run with his older half brother, but came back home after his father passed away. He sold insurance and real estate. He did everything to avoid being a farmer. His younger brother was the farmer, but when John died as a young man, my great-grandfather did what his mother wanted him to do and took over the farm.

My great-grandfather, Edward
My gg-grandparents share a large stone with John. My great-grandfather, Edward, has a smaller stone next to them. Use these markers to answer the following questions and discover the location of stage four. It is located at N 39 31.MNO W 095 24.PQR
M: last digit of the year my great-grandfather died (smaller stone to the south of his parents)
N: third digit of the year my gg-grandmother, Mary, died
O: last digit of the year my gg-grandmother, Mary, died
Checksum for MNO is 8
P: third digit of the year John died
Q: last digit of the year Mary was born
R: last digit of the year my gg-grandfather, Edward, died (top line on larger stone)
Checksum for PQR is 13

STAGE FOUR
Here you will find my gg-grandparents, J & H. The last name starts with the letter E. She was the daughter of the couple you visited in Stage Two. His parents were featured in Family Tree #5: Muscotah Cemetery. She was the daughter of Irish immigrants and he was the son and grandson of German immigrants. They had eleven children and their oldest was my great-grandfather. He is buried elsewhere and may be the subject of a future installment of this series.

My gg-grandparents
Use the information from their marker to fill in the missing digits in the following projection to find the location of the cache. Pay attention to the decimal points in both the distance and the bearing. I gave you the last three digits of the bearing.
the cache is STUV.W feet at XYZ.118 degrees from this stage
S: the third digit of the year HE died
T: the second digit of the year SHE died MINUS the 4th digit of the year SHE died
U: the third digit of the year HE died
V: the number of letters in HIS first name
W: the second digit of the year SHE died
Checksum for STUVW is 23 (reminder-->pay attention to the decimal point)
X: second digit of the year SHE was born MINUS the third digit of the year she was born
Y: the 4th digit of the year SHE died
Z: the sum of the last two digits of the year HE died
Checksum for XYZ is 15

Calculate the projection from the Stage 4 coordinates to obtain the coordinates of the cache.
Take a short drive to the cache.
Find the cache and sign the log.
Thanks for visiting my family.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)