Magnolia Cemetery Halloween (almost) Visit Set

Tomorrow our class visits Magnolia Cemetery!  What adventures await us? Hopefully nothing too ghoulish!

I felt I was being watched yesterday at Magnolia Cemetery!  I was being watched! 

My spirits were high at Bethel UMC

Bethel United Methodist Church (UMC) has been a part of Charleston since 1797 and lasted through natural disasters and human created disasters, such as the civil war. It first opened as a "wooden shack" uniting both whites and blacks. This little building is known as Old Bethel today and it was donated to the black congregation in 1876 as the whites had plans for a larger sanctuary. Today Bethel and Old Bethel work together to keep the Christian faith going. Bethel was the only Methodist Church that was open during the civil war. It has undergone several renovations through the years but Bethel UMC is the oldest Methodist Church in Charleston and is also pinned as a National Historic Landmark.

Digging Into Your Own Family's Roots

One of the favorite assignments my "Beyond the Grave" students undertake is to research one of their own ancestors. The relative must be a distant one, a great-grandparent or older- cannot be anyone living.

This, after all, is a class about cemeteries!

Kristina Broome's Great-Grandfather

I see the project as a good one that can help the young people in the class learn more about their own heritage and connections with the past. The task involves talking with parents and/or grandparents to see who might be a good subject for this project. Other research can involve digging into old family albums and other documents, going to local libraries, historical societies and cemeteries, perhaps.
Online resources such as ancestry.com, familysearch.org, and findagrave can also be tapped.  The last two sites are free. The Charleston County Public Library on Calhoun Street has free access to ancestry.com.

The students will present their findings to the class, which is another beneficial part of the assignment, I feel.

Bri Ingram's Great Great Grandmother

I have been very impressed with some of the memorable reports students have given and written about their ancestors.  They have included a Union Civil War general, an FBI agent who hunted down gangsters in the 1930s, a "Calamity Jane" type American Wild West woman, an immigrant who began a successful chain of pizza restaurants, and a member of the ill-fated Titanic crew.

To give current students an idea of what I'm looking for with this project, I am attaching links to a few past ancestor blog posts.


Kristina Broome, Spring 2018
Bri Ingram, Spring 2017
Rei Maloy, Spring 2018
Becker West, Fall 2018

Mr. Harwood's research on his grandfather 

Each of these students received an A for this ancestor research blog post and presentation. So current students can look at these stories for guidance and maybe some inspiration.

Bethel Church Visit- Rainy But Righteous!

Church administrator Sue Bennett greets the class

Thank goodness Bethel United Methodist Church has a large covered area by its massive white columns and huge front door.

We needed the protection as off and on rain fell during our Oct. 8 visit.

Midterm Exam Study Guide Link

Click here to see the PDF file of the Midterm Exam Study Guide. 

For a tutorial on how to post PDF files to Blogger, see this YouTube video. The steps involve uploading the paper/PDF to Google Drive, then shows how to embed it to Blogger using the HTML setting. But for whatever reason, the "embed" feature in Google Docs wasn't showing, so I had to use a link as you see above. 

Fun Filled Graveyard Visit!

Our recent class visit to the old graveyard at Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul did not go unnoticed by some of the regular residents, it would seem!

Kizoa's Halloween special effects category was perfect for this image