Don't you just hate it when relatives go missing?
It seems that my family has a rather annoying trait of playing hide and seek with me - changing ages, changing spellings, moving...you get the idea. Those are the relatives who hide in the records. And then there are those relatives who hide in the graveyard...
Case in point: George Edwin Lacey (b. 1862, d. 1933), my great-great grandfather, and his eldest daughter, Zetta May Lacey (b. 1889, d. 1894), who died at age four after a bout with spinal meningitis while the family was living in Seattle.
For those who aren't aware, the Lacey family has lived in Monterey County for just shy of a thousand and one years. Or since about 1860. It all depends on who you ask. It stands to reason, then, that the majority of the Lacey family should be buried in this county. So, naturally, all my cemetery research has focused on our Ohio relatives, rather than those in my backyard who I could go see for myself. Makes sense, right?
Finally, about a week or so ago, I dragged myself down to the office of the cemetery in Salinas, where I believed most of the Laceys to be buried. The office looked up the names for me, and sure enough, I was soon standing in front of an entire plot filled with Laceys. George's parents, Joseph and Isabella, were both there, as was Isabella's mother, Mary Taylor, and Joseph's niece, Ada Josselyn. George's sister Clara was there, as were several of his brothers - Alfred, Albert, Claude and James - along with Claude and James' wives (Alfred died at age 3, and Albert never married).
George's brothers Leroy and Joseph Carlisle were missing from the plot, but given the fact that neither brother lived in Salinas, I hadn't expected that I would find them here. The same goes for his other sister, Mary, who died at the age nine, when the family was still living in Monterey. I suspect if I call the cemetery there, I may find her, but that's a search for another day.
The woman in the cemetery office told me that George was also in the Lacey plot, as was Zetta. I was surprised to hear Zetta's name, as I had assumed she would have been buried in Seattle, but nevertheless was happy to find out she was closer to home (I can only imagine having to call every cemetery in the Seattle area to track her grave down...yikes!). Only one problem - there was no marker in the Lacey plot for either George or Zetta.
A little further digging (figuratively, of course) turned up a bit of info I'd found on an Ancestry listing from a woman related to George's brother James' wife. Her research had indicated that George had been buried in Salinas, but had been moved in 1943. Given that his wife, my great-great grandmother May Ellen Riley, didn't die until 1947, I can only presume that she is the one who had him moved, and Zetta as well.
And there I had it, a full-fledged mystery! Where are George and Zetta? And why did May have them moved?
Last night, I finally made it to the public library before closing time (side note - libraries need better after-work hours!) and had a chance to spend a few hours scrolling through microfilms of the old Salinas newspapers. I wasn't able to find a full obituary for May - or for anyone in that time period, strangely enough, so perhaps they weren't publishing them at the time - but I did come across a very short blurb, only two sentences long, entitled "Many Attend Last Rites For Mrs. May Lacey."
The first sentence describes May's death and a bit of the service. The second sentence was my eureka! moment, though: "...and private interment that followed at Woodlawn Cemetery, South San Francisco."
A quick call to Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma at lunch today confirmed my finding - not only is May buried there, but right next to her are George and Zetta.
South San Francisco? George and May were both brought up in Salinas (although May was born in San Jose), and lived their entire lives here, with the exception of the few years they spent in Seattle at the beginning of their marriage. Grandma Lacey, what were you thinking?
I don't imagine that I'll ever know the full story of why May moved her family. Was the Lacey plot in Salinas not nice enough? Was she concerned it wouldn't be big enough for all three of them? Did she have some sort of connection to the Colma cemetery?
Still, at least I've solved one part of the mystery, and now we know where these three Laceys are buried. There's a certain thrill that comes with solving a mystery...I think it's a little addicting!
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