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Written by John Ellingsworth
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Wednesday, 07 July 2004 |
During a brief visit to the Philadelphia area, I located the burial record for my g-g-grandmother, Ellen M. Simpson, in the Mount Moriah burial records, which are held on microfilm at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The next day, 6th January 2006, I visited Mount Moriah and was saddened to see its condition.
What I found most annoying was that the staff at the entrance to the cemetery were not allowed to provide detailed information about the grave site location. Ellen Simpson was buried in Section 3, Lot 220, Grave number 4. Many of the headstones in this section have been overturned, so one can't see what is engraved on them. Clearly the cemetery staff had a map showing the layout of section 3 which they consulted while I was present, but they would not allow me to see it! They only provided me with a map showing the sections of the cemetery, which isn't sufficiently detailed to direct a visitor to a specific grave. Why the maps of the cemetery sections are not publicly available for visitors to view is incomprehensible. I was visiting from Australia, so a return visit in the near future is impossible.
I know of two other family members who were buried in this lot, Martha Simpson (Ellen's daughter, died 7 Nov 1864) and Sue E Keller (Ellen's grand-daughter, died May 1881). I did not have the time to search for other burial records when I visited Philadelphia.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 March 2008 )
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