Lebanonymous

Mrs. Cupcakes and I just returned from Lebanon, CT, where we attended a historical tour of Trumbull Cemetery. Trumbull Cemetery is important in local, regional, and even national history, but I wanted to go for another, selfish reason.

A few years back, I ran across a web site that one of my relatives put together that demonstrates that she can trace her ancestry back to the Mayflower, which means that I can, as well. Not to get big-headed about it, but it is pretty cool to be able to trace family lineage back that far, Mayflower or not.

Upon my recent rememberance of her site, I started checking to see if anyone had settled in CT, and there was a listing for one Obadiah Wheeler, who died "sometime after 1718" in Lebanon, CT. There is no death certificate, specific location, etc., but what remains are several gravestones that were carved by Obadiah, "The finest craftsman of the early inland rural carvers of eastern Connecticut". Now, I am not a direct decendent, but by my calculations, Obadiah was my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-uncle, as I am decended from his brother, Joseph Wheeler, of the MA Wheelers. Well, SOME of the MA Wheelers, anyway.

So, after I found out about Obadiah's Lebanon connection, I Googled him, of course, and up came this little news blurb about how the Lebanon Historical Society was giving a tour of the Trumbull Cemetery, with an "above ground" expert to talk about the stones, and a "below ground" expert to talk about the permanent residents. Today, Sunday, May 7th, 2006. And I found out about him on Tuesday. Serendipity.

iPhoto is currently chewing through the photos of the tour, and spitting them up to flickr as I write this. Fun, fun, fun!