Update: Tragic Thomas Callin

In another stunning example of how helpful strangers on the internet can be, we just received several photos from a Find A Grave user, Names In Stone, settling a number of questions from one of my first Callin Family History posts, Tragic Thomas.

All of these graves are located in the Old Olivesburg Cemetery in Weller Township, Richland County, Ohio. I'm not sure, but it looks like some of these photos might have been taken during or after a restoration project, judging by the water lines.

(You should be able to click on the photos to display them larger - I've linked their captions to the Find A Grave sites if that doesn't work for you.)

Thomas Callin
(1802-1841)

Most of what we know about Thomas Callin and his family came from the Callin Family History, but without these grave markers, we didn't have any solid information about Thomas's birth or death dates.

Now that we have a photo of his headstone, we can see it is inscribed "DIED, Aug. 26, 1841; Aged 39 Y. 2 M." which puts his birth date in June 1802.

Nancy (Burget) Callin
(1809-1871)

His wife, Nancy Burget Callin, died 27 November 1871. The two photos on her memorial give us slightly different views, as they seem to have been taken at different times - one before the restoration project, and one after.

In the photo on the left, her date of death is clearly legible, and if you can't make it out here, there is a second photo on her Find A Grave memorial on which the inscription "Aged - 62 y. (? M.) 20 d." can be made out more clearly. Since I can't see how many months are inscribed, her birth date would fall some number of months before 7 November 1809.

Caroline Callin
(1829-1847)

Some mysteries do persist. I can't quite make out the inscriptions on several of the Callin children's markers.

I think Caroline Callin's marker reads as follows:

CAROLINE C.
Dau. of
T. & N. CALLIN
DIED
Nov. 5, 1847
AGED
18 Y, 7 M. & 8 D.

I admit that it could be any number of days under that lichen, but I'm always happy to correct things when presented with better evidence.


If my guess is right, her birthday would have been 29 March 1829.

Sally Callin
(1830-1844)

Sally Callin's tombstone looks like the two lines under her name probably read "daughter of T. & N. Callin," as her siblings' markers do.

The date is difficult to parse, but I think it says "July 30, 1844" - and I can't read the line that gives her age at the time of death.

My best guess is that it says "13 Y 10 M & 8 D," which would put her birth date on 22 September 1830.

Mary Ann Callin
(1833-1851)

Mary Ann Callin died March 19, 1851, aged 18 years, 1 month, and 11 days.

Her birthday was February 8, 1833.

Able Callin
(1838-1840)

Able Callin's marker says, "Son of T. & N. Callin."

Then it may say "Died Jan. 8, 1839" - or "1840" perhaps? Setting the date in a recessed line did not help me!

His age at death appears to be "1 Y. 3 (M.?)  & 23 D." which would make his birth date either 16 September of 1837 or 1838.

I'm inclined to say that the death date is 1840, because the last digit looks like a "0" and because the preceding digit seems too angular to be a "3".

Emoline Callin
(1839-1850)

Emoline Callin's marker seems very clear:

Emoline C.
Dau. of
T. & N. CALLIN
DIED
June 23, 1850.
Aged 10 Y. &
10 M.

At first, the "5" in "1850" looked like a "3" to me. But that would put Emoline's birthday on 23 September 1819, and the problem with that is that her parents' marriage record in the Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993 database says they were married on 20 November 1823. (The Callin Family History says they married in 1822.)

Logically, since Thomas died in 1841, she would have to have been born before that date, and the 1850 date of death would make her birthday 23 September 1839.

Elliott Callin
(1841-1865)

Elliott Callin enlisted in the 26th Ohio Regiment in 1861, which saw action at the Battle of Shiloh, and was deployed at the end of the war to New Orleans, Louisiana, and then to San Antonio, Texas. Elliott died in 1865, at the hospital in Columbus, Ohio - never married.

His marker says he died 16 November 1865, aged "24 Y. 8 M. 7 D."


That would make his birthday March 9, 1841.

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Thanks again to "Names in Stone" for making this post possible, and for putting these valuable photos on Find-a-Grave.

Please feel free to weigh in if you think I've gotten anything wrong - particularly if you think I've misread a gravestone. This is really a team effort, and as I like to say, "There's no 'I' in 'team,' but there are two in 'idiot!'"

Happy Hunting!