The Blount Countian, 25 Jun 2003
Have You Ever Wondered?
By Carol Duckett

"I didn't start out with a goal of surveying all the cemeteries in Blount County, but after I got started it became addictive, and before I realized it, I had covered a large part of the county. Then I decided I might as well do all of them."

Robin Sterling is researching Blount County cemeteries.

"Several of my ancestors were from Blount County and I have thought for years that if I only had an updated and comprehensive collection of tombstone inscriptions, I would be able to plug in a few missing links in my family’s history," said Sterling.

Have you ever wondered where your ancestors are buried?

Sterling, the son of Billy and Evelyn Sterling of Sardis Community near Addison, Alabama, asked himself that question and his curiosity about his Blount County family tree is now all but an obsession.

His grandmothers, said, instilled in him an avid interest in his ancestors. His grandmother Sterling (nee Echols) came from a large family, and even at an advanced age she could recite all of her brothers’ and sisters’ full names and birthdays. She wrote them down for Sterling over 30 years ago, and that information became an information base.

While working on his undergraduate and master's degrees in communications research at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Sterling discovered additional information in genealogical research materials in the school library.

"In the University library, I found a few relatives and ancestors in Cullman and Blount County on microfilm and I’ve been interested in genealogy ever since," said Sterling.

In his research, Sterling consulted the Huntsville Public Library, the Blount County Memorial Museum at Oneonta, Blount County courthouse archives, and the Internet. He also carefully reviewed the last comprehensive survey of tombstones completed in the mid-1960s by Jack Horton and Ralph Allred and others affiliated with the Gadsden Branch of the Latter Day Saints church. He re-verified and incorporated limited research done by Elbert Johnson of Hanceville in 1965-66, as well as research conducted by Melvin Jones in 1970.

Sterling has been very meticulous about his research methods. One by one, he updated earlier records by taking a digital snapshot of each tombstone in a cemetery and comparing those images to previous surveys, correcting and adding information as he went along. He gratefully acknowledges that he received invaluable assistance from many local people in identifying isolated cemeteries and small family plots that were later abandoned or sold with the property when the family moved on.

"My wife Wanda [nee Blevins] went with me occasionally and helped me chalk some of the stones to bring out illegible inscriptions, but most of the time I went by myself. That kind of work can be as tiresome and boring as when you’re sitting on a creek bank for hours and the fish aren’t biting," Sterling said.

In his own family line, his great-great-great-great grandfather Silas Sterling came from South Carolina in 1817 and was one of the earliest settlers in Blount County. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) erected a marker for Silas Sterling in Rock Springs, although family legend has it that he was actually buried in an unmarked grave on a hill near Roswell Creek Cemetery. Silas's daughter, Adeline Colista Sterling, married James Copeland, son of David and Esther Copeland. The Copeland House on US Highway 231 near new Lebanon was named after this family. Many of the Copelands are buried in the Blue Springs / New Lebanon Cemetery.

One of Silas Sterling's sons, Josiah Sterling, is buried in Roswell Creek Cemetery. The tombstone had no inscription, so his great-great-great grandson, Robin, decided to remedy that oversight. He had a metal plaque engraved with Josiah's name and dates of his birth and death and he personally attached it to the stone.

Every tombstone has its own story to tell, if only it could. In his research, Sterling has found some most unusual tombstone inscriptions. For example, in the Alldredge Cemetery, a stone reads, "Mr. Rogers - died while traveling through" and it makes one wonder what happened to him and if his family ever knew where he was buried. Another tombstone in the Nectar Cemetery was erected in memory of an individual’s "left leg" buried there. Again, fodder for the imagination. The oldest known cemetery marker in Blount County is found in the Hudson Cemetery near Locust Fork, inscribed "Rebecca Hanby, born 1818 and died 1822, aged 4 yr."

For much of 2002, Sterling spent on average about once every weekend researching Blount County cemeteries, armed with his digital camera and a bag containing more batteries and memory disks. Often he scrambled through briar patches or worked his way through thick underbrush to reach family cemeteries. Occasionally he would find a small, unidentified cemetery where he had no one to ask for permission to take his photographs. He admits to being caught only once, when a property owner threatened to call the sheriff because she thought he was poaching deer. After he explained the purpose of his project and showed her his notes, however, she willingly granted his request to complete his survey.

The results of his research have provided highly accurate, though not infallible, records. Sterling personally surveyed and photographed tombstones in each cemetery, but he asks readers to contact him if they are aware of any unreported cemeteries or markers with inscriptions yet to be surveyed in Blount County. He acknowledges that some tombstones were probably missed in older, isolated cemeteries where they perhaps fell and became covered with leaves, vines, and other vegetation over the years.

"I’m also planning to visit some of the cemeteries in adjoining counties where several Blount Countians are buried, such as one or two in Etowah County," Sterling commented. "I've already surveyed the Nixon Chapel Cemetery in Marshall County and a couple of cemeteries in the Walnut Grove community. I'm hoping someone will come forward with information on other isolated and unknown cemeteries so I can include them in my last book."

The research information in his three-volume survey is an important up-to-date record of the history of families in Blount County. Persons interested in tracing their ancestors or verifying records can access this information two ways.

Sterling posts basic information on his Blount County Research website at: http://home.hiwaay.net/~bobwonda/index.html. Volumes 1 and 2 can be purchased at the museum in Oneonta at a cost of $40 each, or ordered directly from Robin Sterling, 251 Woodside Drive, Owens Cross Roads, Alabama 35763 at a cost of $40 each plus $3 shipping and handling. His books are broken down alphabetically by cemetery name, then alphabetically by last name as shown on the individual tombstones. For those who want to find out if a specific individual is buried in Blount County, Sterling has included an alphabetical listing of all tombstone inscriptions in his books. Volume 3 is being completed and printing is anticipated by the end of summer.

Sterling is with a Huntsville contractor involved in the Precision Fires Rocket and Missile Systems, recently deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom.