The Man Next to Whom I Will Spend Eternity.

My future neighbor at the cemetery,
Johannes Georg Hansen (1894-1939)

Catchy title, huh? For something completely different, a little bit about my maternal family tree.

In talking with a family fellow-genealogist, I discovered that my 2nd great grandmother on my maternal side, Lars Peder (later Peter Lars or "Pete") Hansen's wife, Ida Marie "Mary" Olson Hansen, bought six plots in Greenwood Cemetery, a beautiful city cemetery here in Cedar Falls, Iowa, after the death of her husband in a railroad construction accident in 1918. According to city records, she paid $25 for Lot 16, Plots 1-6, Block 4, 2nd addition.

Peter and his wife would both be buried there, as would Edna Hansen Morcum, their daughter, in 1947 and another daughter, Sophia Hansen Miner in 1936. That left two plots. When one of the Hansen cousins, John George died in 1939, (the last man to die while working on the Boulder Dam from 1924-1939), he was provided with the fifth plot by family head and oldest Hansen son, Andy Hansen, leaving one. No one had used the final plot in all these years.

I pondered where I wanted to spend my eternity as ashes and decided I could think of no better place than to be buried beside "my people." I found out all I needed to do was contact EVERY surviving person from the oldest generation and get them to sign a letter saying the ownership transfer was okay.

Fortunately, I was provided with the names of the surviving grandchildren by my genealogist relative, and thankfully, there were only three, including my 94 year old grandfather. What ensued was an opportunity to meet a relative I'd never met and reconnected with one I knew quite well when growing up, but hadn't seen since I left Iowa in 1979. All three of them signed the letter and last week, the ownership of the last plot was signed, sealed, and sent to the city for transfer.

I get the corner lot

I thought you might like to learn about those with whom I will be spending eternity. These profiles are beautifully researched and written and I could do no better, so I'm sharing them here:

1. Johannes Georg Hansen

2. Lars Peder Hansen

3. Ida Marie "Mary" Olson Hansen

4. Edna Marie Hansen Morcum

5. Sophia Marion Hansen Miner

Greenwood Cemetery, Cedar Falls, Iowa

View from the bluff in Greenwood Cemetery

In the 15 years I lived in Black Hawk County after arriving here from Germany where my parents lived during my dad's service, I had never been to Greenwood Cemetery in Cedar Falls. It wasn't until I moved back and started my genealogy work that I even figured out exactly where it was. Then I started some of the easiest nearby relatives for my genealogy introduction.

I've been working on my dad's side of the family almost exclusively for the past 2+ years, but Greenwood is the eternal home of many of those on my mom's side. Among them, Lars Peder (Peder Lars) Hansen and his wife, Ida Marie "Mary" Olson, my 2nd great grandparents as, well as Sophia (no marker), John George Hansen, and Edna Hansen Morcum.

They are buried very close to my great grandparents, Oscar Hansen and Leah Moore, in the older part of cemetery. And, it turns out, there is an extra plot that Mary had purchased that was never used. I've been working on securing permission to use that plot from the surviving grandchildren of Peder and Mary, which has been a story in itself that has reconnected me with people I have not seen since childhood. I hope it pans out.

Today, my daughter and I went to a Cedar Falls Historical Society event at the cemetery where they had actors present information on the inventors of Cedar Falls who were buried in Greenwood. For $5, it's well worth the money and my kid enjoyed it as well. While there, I thought I'd locate the place that might be my forever home.

It's a corner plot. I kind of like that idea. Quick in and out if anyone ever wants to come visit me. I'm all about efficiency.