![\"jackson](\"https:\/\/roger-glass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/jackson-headstone-w-rg.jpg\")
<\/a>Honoring the gravesite of my great-great grandmother and great grandparents<\/p><\/div>\n
If I had known that these other ancestors were buried elsewhere in the same cemetery, I certainly would have visited their gravesite to reflect and leave flowers, just as I often did at the gravesite of my grandparents.<\/p>\n
My grandparents\u2014Henry and Virginia Nelson\u2014were buried in the Lone Valley section of the cemetery, but I wanted to locate the graves of my great-great grandmother and great-grandparents who were buried in the Macpelah section. My first visit to the Macpelah section in May 2010 ended in frustration as the cemetery\u2019s superintendent, Andrew Cupak, and I were unable to find my ancestors\u2019 burial site. I wanted to make sure their grave had a proper headstone\u2014and I wanted to leave a token of my love and appreciation. These were, after all, ancestors who, in the early 1900s, had been leaders of Tarrytown\u2019s \u201ccolored\u201d community\u2014and who had become a tremendous source of pride and inspiration for me in recent years.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Former Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Superintendent Andrew Cupak<\/p><\/div>\n
Before I left that the cemetery that May day, Superintendent Cupak vowed to find my ancestors\u2019 gravesite. When I returned 4-5 months later he had indeed found their burial site\u2014and there was a headstone that he had had cleaned to ensure that it was in top condition when I saw it. I appreciated the superintendent\u2019s efforts\u2014and I was thrilled to finally be able to see, care for and honor my ancestors\u2019 final resting place.<\/p>\n
While this search for my ancestors\u2019 gravesites ended a chapter of my pursuit of my family\u2019s history, it also intensified a new one. Now, I was even more determined to learn more about what I consider some fairly remarkable ancestors, including a great-great grandmother who lived to be 114, a great-grandfather who in the early 1900s served as the personal assistant to the president of New York Central Railway, and great grandmother who was a political activist, a community leader and a respected spokesperson for Tarrytown\u2019s \u201ccolored\u201d people.<\/p>\n
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Surprise and frustration. That\u2019s the only way to describe my feelings when I found out a few years ago that my great-great grandmother, Lucy Ann Jackson, who was born into slavery in Nelson Co., VA, my great-grandfather Clarence \u201cPapa Jack\u201d … Continue reading