2024 #14 – Baltimore MD – Virginia’s Ashes

March 13th to 15th

I left North Carolina and headed north toward Baltimore, driving through Virginia and around Washington DC. This time I was driving just my truck, because my trailer was out of commission waiting for a new axle. So I had to find hotel/motels to stay in. A new challenge!

My family going back generations is buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. I believe it’s the oldest cemetery in the city. The family name of Goldsmith is traced back to one of the first pilgrim ships, captained by Lord Baltimore!! I had called ahead to let the staff know I was coming so they prepared the plot for Virginia’s ashes. They were placed over my father’s grave where he was buried in 1968. My ashes will one day be placed over my mother’s grave (she was buried in 1998), right next to my father and now Virginia. I put Virginia’s ashes in a ceramic pot that I made and gave to her years ago and in which she kept her favorite candy: York Peppermint Patties. I also sprinkled some of Sunna’s ashes over her grave, because she was one of the few people Sunna loved and trusted (besides me and Kelley). I stayed for awhile after her ashes were buried and sang some songs, including Amazing Grace.

I have annotated all the photos with names and tried to figure out which was who. Notice that the names Virginia, Elise, and Goldsmith are repeated in many cases. The burial plot is basically two plots side by side, with an order signed by Morgan A. Miller in 1874! The left side is my mother’s family. There was only one headstone on the right side, Morgan A. Miller Jr (probably a child as it was a very small headstone) but there are notes in the records showing others may be buried there, including Morgan A. Miller. I have to do some more research.

It was a quiet day, and a little hard to leave. So many memories and thoughts about ancestors. My mother did a lot of research and documented our ancestry, but I have not had time to go through all her hand-written notes. At the end of the day, I realized it was March 14th, our parents’ anniversary! Just a coincidence?? What do you think?

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National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle VA
This is near the entrance to Quantico Marine Core Base
The marker was placed and the hole dug when I got there
Virginia's ashes buried on top of my father's grave. My mother's grave is beside his.
Virginia's ashes, in a ceramic pot I gave her years ago.
You can see the pot in the right side of the hole.
The cemetery helper filled in the hole and put the sod back on top.
Finished. My father's headstone is above and my mother's headstone is to the right.
VEP - In Loving Memory
Some of Sunna's ashes sprinkled over Virginia's ashes
Mathew Peter Palmer, my father, he died on April 16, 1968
Virginia Alice Wingert Palmer, my mother, she died on April 16, 1998 - 30 years later
Virginia Elise Palmer, passed away on June 29, 2019
Large headstone - my great-grandparents, small headstone on right, my grandmother.
My great-grandparents' headstone, no longer readable. Initials on each side helped.
ESG - Egler (I think) Goldsmith, my great-grandfather
SVG - Susan Virginia Goldsmith, my great-grandmother
Elise Goldsmith Wingert, my mother's mother, my grandmother
These are behind my great-grandparents headstone
Grace Virginia Goldsmith, my grandmother's sister, our great aunt
Egbert Goldsmith, I think. The metal marker is from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
This double plot was in the name of Morgan A. Miller
The left hand side of the plot is my mother's family.
The left half has all of my family - great-grandparents, grandmother and great aunt, parents, and now Virginia.
The right half had only one grave, Morgan Miller Jr. . probably a child.
Small headstone, Morgan Miller Jr. I'm assuming he was a child.
View to the north
View to the south - my family's section
View to the west - my family's section
View of cemetery - to west
View of cemetery - to north
My truck - view to NE
Local church, old architecture
Another lovely old building
Another Baltimore Cemetery - passed on the way north