Yep, I'm doing more genealogy. This time I'm in Baltimore Maryland, trying to locate the graves of my Great-Great-Grandfather Traugott Singewald (1816-1884).
Traugott, born in Saxony (present-day Germany), along with his brother Gottlieb, mother-in-law, and all of his immediate children, apparently didn't want any of their graves marked. Every last one of them is buried in a grave which is completely unmarked. Given that there are thousands of other germanic graves with markers all around (many with "Geboren", "Gestoben", dates, and even poems in German), I wonder why the Singewalds didn't want their graves marked? The cemetery records are accompanied by notes saying, "unmarked at dec. request". Why?
The grassy area in the picture above is the place where two of Traugott's sons are buried. The location of Traugott (in the cemetery's records as Frawgot H. Singwald, because of the terrible handwriting on the original cemetery cards), along with F. H. Tingvald, Mrs. Singwald, and Margustine Stossel (apparently Traugott's mother-in-law) occupy a nine-grave plot (along with a couple of Singewald children, ages 22 days to 5 years) and all of them, every last one, is completely unmarked. I wonder why?
After visiting two cemeteries in the worst part of Baltimore, I headed for D. C. for my business meetings. The traffic between Baltimore and D. C. was, well, normal for a Friday afternoon. Last night I had dinner with the new crop of InfoSec MBA students, and this morning I sat in on their first in-person class session.
This afternoon I had some time off. Time for a visit to a national park, right?
Okay, so ... where is the picture below taken? (Hint: it's not in Baltimore!)
I'm kinda proud of the picture below. Click on it and view it full size, and scroll back and forth.
The picture above is a stitched composite of two actual photographs. Pretty good, huh?
Okay, click on the photo below, and zoom in and tell me what is that little dot in the exact center of the photo. Look closely. (The picture below is a close-up of the far-right-hand cascade in the picture above.... that shows how huge these falls really are!)
Below are the falls from a little further downstream. Keep in mind, the water flow is low because it's the dry season. These falls really roar in the Spring. Yes, those are fully-grown trees on top of the rocks.
A few yards inland from the falls is the remains of the canal built to allow boats to bypass the obstacle of the falls. Below is a lock from the Patowmack Canal, which was the brainchild of none other than George Washington. Look up Patowmack Canal in Wikipedia for a short but interesting history lesson. It was started about the time of the U.S. Constitution, and was a full generation before the great C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio canal) which replaced it.
Upriver from the falls is a dam which serves to de-sedimentize the river. The river backs up behind the dam, gets calm, and the drops its sediment. Some of the "clean" water is then siphoned off, put into an aquaduct, and becomes Washington D.C.'s (and its suburbs') drinking water. The rest of the river water goes over the dam, and then over the falls. (Given that my sewage from home goes into this river, I guess I shouldn't drink the tap water at Uncle Gary's house!)
The lake behind the dam is gorgeous. Canoeing down this river, you'd never guess what awaits you a hundred yards to the right.
Downstream, too, has some nice scenery. Notice the geese on the rocks in the river. Click on this picture to enjoy the true beauty of this area.
Okay, so what is the name of this park? (Hint: I was on the Virginia side of the river, and my National Park pass got me in for free.)
Yep, I'm doing more genealogy. This time I'm in Baltimore Maryland, trying to locate the graves of my Great-Great-Grandfather Traugott Singewald (1816-1884).
Traugott, born in Saxony (present-day Germany), along with his brother Gottlieb, mother-in-law, and all of his immediate children, apparently didn't want any of their graves marked. Every last one of them is buried in a grave which is completely unmarked. Given that there are thousands of other germanic graves with markers all around (many with "Geboren", "Gestoben", dates, and even poems in German), I wonder why the Singewalds didn't want their graves marked? The cemetery records are accompanied by notes saying, "unmarked at dec. request". Why?
The grassy area in the picture above is the place where two of Traugott's sons are buried. The location of Traugott (in the cemetery's records as Frawgot H. Singwald, because of the terrible handwriting on the original cemetery cards), along with F. H. Tingvald, Mrs. Singwald, and Margustine Stossel (apparently Traugott's mother-in-law) occupy a nine-grave plot (along with a couple of Singewald children, ages 22 days to 5 years) and all of them, every last one, is completely unmarked. I wonder why?
After visiting two cemeteries in the worst part of Baltimore, I headed for D. C. for my business meetings. The traffic between Baltimore and D. C. was, well, normal for a Friday afternoon. Last night I had dinner with the new crop of InfoSec MBA students, and this morning I sat in on their first in-person class session.
This afternoon I had some time off. Time for a visit to a national park, right?
Okay, so ... where is the picture below taken? (Hint: it's not in Baltimore!)
I'm kinda proud of the picture below. Click on it and view it full size, and scroll back and forth.
The picture above is a stitched composite of two actual photographs. Pretty good, huh?
Okay, click on the photo below, and zoom in and tell me what is that little dot in the exact center of the photo. Look closely. (The picture below is a close-up of the far-right-hand cascade in the picture above.... that shows how huge these falls really are!)
Below are the falls from a little further downstream. Keep in mind, the water flow is low because it's the dry season. These falls really roar in the Spring. Yes, those are fully-grown trees on top of the rocks.
A few yards inland from the falls is the remains of the canal built to allow boats to bypass the obstacle of the falls. Below is a lock from the Patowmack Canal, which was the brainchild of none other than George Washington. Look up Patowmack Canal in Wikipedia for a short but interesting history lesson. It was started about the time of the U.S. Constitution, and was a full generation before the great C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio canal) which replaced it.
Upriver from the falls is a dam which serves to de-sedimentize the river. The river backs up behind the dam, gets calm, and the drops its sediment. Some of the "clean" water is then siphoned off, put into an aquaduct, and becomes Washington D.C.'s (and its suburbs') drinking water. The rest of the river water goes over the dam, and then over the falls. (Given that my sewage from home goes into this river, I guess I shouldn't drink the tap water at Uncle Gary's house!)
The lake behind the dam is gorgeous. Canoeing down this river, you'd never guess what awaits you a hundred yards to the right.
Downstream, too, has some nice scenery. Notice the geese on the rocks in the river. Click on this picture to enjoy the true beauty of this area.
Okay, so what is the name of this park? (Hint: I was on the Virginia side of the river, and my National Park pass got me in for free.)
5 comments:
wow. that looks almost as cool as belgium. but the cemetary's not as beautiful :)
That is neat, bravo on the pictures! I had no idea that kind of scenery existed by D.C., next time I go up there, I would like to stop by...
are you at rock creek park? Somewhere?
Wow! you travel a lot :D
Great pictures- I'm impressed!
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