No Marker for Emil

I’m heading up to Green Bay with my dad in a couple weeks for the first Packers Fan Fest. On the way there and back, I’m going to stop at a couple cemeteries to do some genealogy research. It wouldn’t be a road trip without a cemetery visit.

One cemetery is Lincoln Memorial Cemetery (formerly Wanderer’s Rest) in Milwaukee. My great-granduncle, Emil Ladewig, was buried there in 1911 after succumbing to typhoid fever. I’ve been to the cemetery before, but was not able to locate the grave, so this time I planned ahead and sent an inquiry to the cemetery.

Within a few days I received a response which included a map of the cemetery and approximate locations for Emil as well as his mother-in-law, Lena Hopp Kunkel, along with detailed info on the plot locations. It turns out I probably walked right past his grave on my previous visits without noticing… because he doesn’t have a marker!

It is sad to think of all the graves that have been forgotten over time, those that no one ever visits. But for those graves, there is at least a marker to tell people who is buried there, so that eventually someone may rediscover that person. But to have a grave that doesn’t even have a marker… that is especially sad. Maybe someday we can get get enough family members to chip in and place a marker at the site.