Ludlow brothers recording every gravestone in Livingston County

By CATHERINE STORTZ RIPLEY

C-T News Editor

What began as an interest to learn about their own family history has developed into a passion with potentially worldwide and perpetual appeal for Livingston County brothers Fred and Jack Woods.

The two have taken it upon themselves to record in writing and through photographs, information about every gravestone found in every cemetery in Livingston County.

There are believed to be 99 cemeteries in the county and the Woods brothers already have documented information of 53 cemeteries. They began their effort in 1999 and their goal is to complete every cemetery in the county.

Their work provides a permanent record - through photographs and writing - of each gravestone in Livingston County. Some stones already have succumbed to bulldozers, vandalism and age and, therefore, are no longer found. But, the ones that are remaining are finally being recorded.

The Woodses can be found at some cemetery, often in a very remote area, on just about any weekend when the weather is nice. Then, between two and three evenings each week, the two will be at their computers working at downloading the images, inputting information and indexing the information they have acquired.

The Woods brothers were born and raised in Ludlow and are the sons of Ruth and Russell Woods of Chillicothe.

The two are still employed full-time. Jack, 53, is a 27-year employee of the postal service and works out of the Chillicothe facility; and Fred, 51, retired from the U.S. Navy a few years ago and now works as a recruiter in Kansas City. Fred currently serves as the GenWeb site coordinator for Livingston County. The brothers live in Ludlow.

The Woodses do most of their outside work during spring, summer and fall and then concentrate on computer programming their cemetery information during the winter.

Their finished product is a compact disk for computers which includes a photograph of each gravestone, a list in alphabetical order of each name in the cemetery and a list of each person according to how they are located in the cemetery (by row and stone number).

Each cemetery has its own CD except for Edgewood Cemetery, which has several disks because of the size of the cemetery. The Woodses collected 14,128 photographs at Edgewood Cemetery and 7,023 names. The gravestones with the oldest dates of death are Mary A. Waite, who died in September 1840; and Elizabeth Jones, who died in April 1843.

The gravestones with the oldest dates of death that the brothers have discovered so far in Livingston County are those of infant William Fryer at McCoskrie Cemetery who died in 1839 and Agness McCoskrie, buried in McCoskrie Cemetery in June 1839.

Another product the Woodses have compiled is a book about the cemeteries. Each book includes the same information as what is found on the CDs, except there are no photographs published in the books.

The smallest cemetery they have completed is Jarvis Cemetery west of Ludlow that has about nine stones.

The brothers began their endeavor in 1999, founding the company CemPhoto WorkShop. To the best of their knowledge, there are only a couple of companies in the entire country that do work similar to the Woodses and it is believed that those companies began sometime after CemPhoto WorkShop began.

CemPhoto WorkShop was the brainchild of Fred Woods, who retired from the Navy in 1992. He continued to live overseas with his wife until she finished her tour of duty.

"In my slack time, I got into genealogy," he said, noting that he started indexing the U.S. Census records in Ray County (where his family is from) from 1830 until 1850.

Fred returned to Ludlow in 1995 and began toying around with the idea of photographing cemeteries. He always had an interest in personal computers since they first came around in the 1980s. As technology continued to advance, it gave Fred the opportunity to pursue his idea of recording the gravestones in Livingston County cemeteries. He shared his idea with his brother and soon Jack came home with a digital camera.

Thus, the brothers launched their endeavor.

The Woodses first recorded Monroe Cemetery which is near their homes in Ludlow and has between 800 and 900 stones.

The brothers look at their project as bonding experience.  Being in the Navy for about half his life, Fred was away from home for about 25 years.

"Through this, we're getting reacquainted as brothers," Jack said.

"We enjoy spending time together and getting out in the middle of nowhere," Fred said.

Not only does their work provide a permanent record of the people who were buried here, but it provides a means for people worldwide to access important genealogical information.

"Why travel hundreds of miles to take your photos when we have done it for you," questions Jack Woods.

The Woodses' product has been shipped throughout the country and even overseas.

Many of their customers learn about their product on via the Internet.  The company maintains a Web site ( www.cemphoto.com ) that has gained in popularity and so far this year has had 7,924 new visitors with 40,035 pages being viewed.  The number of new visitors has about doubled in the last two years.

CemPhoto WorkShop customers are well pleased with their products.

James from California wrote: "I received the Blue Mound CD today and wanted to thank you.  I was very impressed that it all happened so fast.  I think that what you are doing is absolutely wonderful and I truly hope that others will follow your example.  I know that my family will appreciate it for years to come."

Debbie from Montana wrote: "I never dreamed that I would ever see the headstone for my great-great-grandfather and his wife, Nancy.  I also have 15 other ancestors buried there.  I knew that I would never get to Missouri from Helena, Mont., in my lifetime.  Your work means so much to so many."

Alan from Wales, UK, wrote: "I think it is an excellent idea to record those gravestones in this modern way.  I have several distant relatives buried in the cemetery.  I did not even know they existed before Internet days."

Laurann from Illinois wrote: "I was delighted to look at my great-great-grandmother's head stone.  It was great to see the grass cut, too.  I visited the South Cemetery the summer of 1998 and it was completely covered with high weeds.  One of her children was buried in North Cemetery and her headstone was visible on the CD-ROM.  I was very excited.  The pictures were great, too."

The Woodses say a substantial portion of their sales are made to senior citizens and that they expect to see the demand increase as Baby Boomers reach retirement.

"When people retire, they want something to do," Fred said.  "Many turn to genealogy."

Also among their customers are state libraries, such as California and New Jersey, as well as the Mormon genealogical organization in Salt Lake City, Utah, all of which purchased the Woodses' entire CD set.

Obtaining information and photographs if each gravestone is not always an easy task.

Oftentimes, the Woodses must clear the cemetery of weeds and brush that have grown tall and conceal the stones.  Sometimes, they even make minor repairs to the stones.

"A lot of the cemeteries have livestock in them," Jack Woods said, noting that such practices causes permanent damage to the stones.  "The animals have to rub on something and they rub on the stones  Sometimes, the stones fall off the base and we have to pick them up."

The Woodses work hand-in-hand with the Abandoned Cemetery Care Association which is dedicated to maintaining cemeteries that have been abandoned.  The association often loans its equipment to the brothers so they can clear cemeteries before they start working to record the information.

The Woodses equip themselves with a camera, notepad and pen, and cleaning tools such as a broom and putty knife to clean the stones in order to get a clear photograph.  Sometimes the brothers must dig up stones that have been buried through time.

The fact that many of the stones are old make their job more difficult.  Due to vandalism, as well as natural elements, the writing on the stones is not always legible.

What the two see, they write down.  And, they take photographs.

Sometimes, cemetery records assist the Woodses in their data gathering efforts.  Other times, there are no records to be found.

"Mice may have eaten them, they may have gotten lost or nobody knows who last had the records," Jack said.  "Nobody knows the wealth of information probably in somebody's attic."

Jack said he and his brother don't expect to get rich through their business.

"We just want to make enough to recoup the expenses of our equipment and some of our time," he said.

"We don't expect to make enough to compensate us for our time." Fred added.

The two did say they hoped to eventually make enough money to take their wives on vacation to show appreciation for the women's patience and understanding while they've been devoting their weekends and evenings to the cemetery project.

Those wanting to learn more about CemPhoto WorkShop may log onto the Web site at www.cemphoto.com ; or stop by their booth during Chillicothe's Chautauqua in the Park on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 7 and 8.

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