I realized I sent this direct to Rick and not to the list.....
In a message dated 06/28/2007 4:33:14 P.M. Central Daylight Time, KidClerk
writes:
Rick:
You have a perplexing problem, but here is my take on it.
This is a government marker that someone has ordered from the Veteran's
Affairs office in Washington, D.C. I would contact the cemetery to see if they
have any record of who ordered this stone. If that fails, try contacting the
VA to see if they can tell you who ordered that stone. The address of that
person should be on the application. They would have also had to supply
documentation to prove the military history to obtain that stone. I do see that
a "John" Berkheiser served in that company from Oct 2, 1862 to July 9, 1863.
Some one could have confused Jonathan with John and used the incorrect
documentation to order this stone. Since the death date is on the stone, an
obituary might help to shed light on this situation as it could possibly list any
military service.
Once you find out who placed this stone there, I would contact them to make
them aware of the error. Unless it was a local organization of Sons of Union
Veterans or a historical group, I would think any descendant of Jonathan
would want to know of their error and take steps to correct it accordingly. I'm
surprised the VA let this one slide as I would presume that all of the
documentation that was submitted had the name "John" on it while the request
was
for a stone with the name "Jonathan".
Good luck and keep us posted of your progress.
Kyle D. Conrad
In a message dated 06/28/2007 3:28:23 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
reberkheiser(a)earthlink.net writes:
Hi everyone!
Here's something I wanted to bring to your attention.
I discovered a couple of weeks ago via a weblink to the St. Joseph Co., IN
website under Mishawaka City Cemetery a photo of one of my distant relative's
gravestones. Here's the link to Jonathan Berkheiser's stone. He's my 2C4R
relative.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~instjose/cemeteries/mishawaka/berkheiser_jonatha...
Looks like a nice stone, but its what's inscribed on it that gave me acid
reflux and running to find the bottle of pink liquid.
To make a long story short, when this new stone was made, somebody inscribed
on it the wrong Civil War unit. The unit on the stone is not correct
because that's the unit my ggg grandfather, John Berkheiser, served in. I have the
pension file and papers to verify this fact. My ggg grandfather isn't
buried in St. Joseph Co. He's buried in Weasaw Cemetery in Miami Co., IN.
Jonathan and John were born in the same area of Schuylkill Co., PA. Jonathan was
born in 1836 and my John in 1821.
To verify the photo placed on the website, we drove out to the cemetery and
the photo you see is a legitimate picture. However comma it was placed next
to the original gravestone of 1912 vintage.
As you can see my dilemma. I can prove that Jonathan Berkheiser did not
serve in that partricular unit BUT I have been unable to determine whether or
not he really did serve in the Civil War. My ggg grandfather John Berkheiser
is the only one I've been able to find a Civil War Pension file for. I found
this one because I was trying to confirm Jonathan's Civil War service. I
hired a professional genealogist to do the lookups at the National Archives in
Washington, DC. It was cheaper and it was better and faster service. :-)
I contacted the Sons of Union Veterans and they're sympathetic to my problem
but they didn't offer much in help.
As a result of this search, I'm proud to say I'm a direct descendant of 3
Civil War Union Veterans. :-)
Any suggestions on what I can do to fix the error on this newer stone?
Rick B
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