Hello! My name is Chris. I'm currently 26 years old, & I was born & raised here on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. I have loved cemeteries since I was a little kid, & starting my own genealogy journey in the spring of 2020 also kick-started my journey in documenting & preserving graves. I joined Find-a-Grave on April 6, 2020.

My family has been in Maryland (mainly on the Eastern Shore), & in most of the surrounding U.S. East Coast states for at least a couple hundred years; I've been able to confirm a few branches back to the early 1800s & prior. I have most of my known family members & ancestors in public Virtual Cemeteries [listed as "(Surname) Family"] so if you'd like to see if we share ancestors they're there to see. I also have created public Virtual Cemeteries for each generation of my direct ancestors, going from "Grandparents" to "Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandparents," if that would be easier to see if we share relations.

I try my best to be on Find-A-Grave at least once a day, so I should be available for messages or any corrections that need to be made on any memorials. I am always happy to reunite family members to ancestors & I strive to have memorials accurately informed. For corrections or memorial management, you can message me on here, use the "Edit" & "Suggest Other Edits" on the memorial in question, or you can send me an email.

• ——— • ——— • ——— • ——— •

My main family branches are:
Dunn, Johnson, Howard, Bonneville [all in Somerset County, MD], & Anderson [Swedish-speaking Finns who immigrated to America in the early 1890's from Munsala in the Ostrobothnia region on the west coast of Finland & settled in the Chesapeake Bay area].

Some extended family lines (3x-great-grandparents & beyond, with their states & counties of birth/death) are:
Moore [Somerset Co., MD], Evans [Sussex Co., DE], Lynch [MD/Sussex Co., DE], Foster, Bishop, Lewis, & Watson [all in Wilkes Co., NC], Layfield, Ennis, Maddox, & Tull [all in Somerset Co., MD], Matthews [VA], Bacon [VA], Green [Accomack Co., VA], Powell, & Tingle [both in Worcester Co., MD], Hudgins, Armstead, & Jarvis [all in Mathews Co., VA], Walston, Tyler, & Mason [all in Somerset Co., MD], 2 (as of now) separate lines of Walkers [VA & Somerset Co., MD], Jefferson [Lancaster Co., VA], & Lee [Lancaster Co. & Essex Co., VA].

Some extended Finnish "last names"/areas are: Strömming, Långbacka, Loilax/Lojlax, Näs, Träsk, Skrifvars, Mariedahl, & Rank.

• — • — • — • — • — •

My profile picture is of me with the grave of my direct paternal great-great-great-grandmother, Nekoda (Moore) Dunn [memorial ID: 119758531]. My best friend & her sister helped me locate the grave back in October 2020. She was born in Somerset County, MD in 1841, lived there for most of her life before living in Dorchester County, MD (at least in 1910), eventually ending up in Sussex County, DE by around 1911 where she passed away soon thereafter. She was buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Seaford, DE, where a number of her children have also been buried.

• ——— • ——— • ——— • ——— •

Nekoda's husband, Thomas Edward Dunn Sr. (b. ~June 1832 or 1834 Somerset Co., MD — d. between June 1900 - April 1910), is the ancestor I'm currently researching for the most, & is my main brick wall [I'd love to visit his grave & find out who his parents were so I can continue to trace my direct Dunn line].

I have not been able to find any records that show who either of his parents were; the only information I have about them is from 2 U.S. Censuses where (under Thomas E. Dunn Sr.'s entries) they're listed as being Maryland-born.
The only birth "records" I have for Thomas Sr. are from his birthplace & ages on the U.S. Censuses (1870, 1880, 1900), as well as 8 of his children's death certificates that list his birthplace as Somerset County, MD (or just simply Maryland).
I've also run into a lack of death records for him — Maryland didn't standardize filing death certificates until around 1911, & the MD State Archives don't have a death records index card for him within the timeframe his death occurred, meaning he most likely didn't receive a death certificate. I also haven't been able to find any kind of record whatsoever in regards to a burial.
The only information I can find in regards to Thomas Dunn Sr.'s passing is that he is listed as living in the Fairmount District of Somerset County, MD with his family on the farm of a 58-year-old Virginia-born woman named Belle (Arabella) Yerby [Find-a-Grave ID: 268761789], when the 1900 U.S. Census was taken on June 1 - 2; & then his wife Nekoda is listed as a widow living with their son Thomas E. Dunn Jr. & a grandson, George Rittenhouse, in Linkwood District, Dorchester County, MD, when the 1910 U.S. Census was taken on April 26. Nekoda's headstone, installed in Seaford, DE after she passed away in Oct. 1911, also lists herself as the "Wife of the late Thomas E. Dunn … of Somerset Co. MD," confirming he had passed away before his wife.

These are the "only" records I've been able to find Thomas Dunn Sr. on so far:
• MD State Archives marriage record (1861)
• 1870 U.S. Census
• 1870 U.S. Agriculture Census
• 1880 U.S. Census
• 1880 U. S. Agriculture Census
• 1900 U.S. Census
• wife Nekoda Dunn's headstone (installed ~Oct. 1911)
• death certificates of 8 children:
━ Sarah A. Dunn (PA; 1926)
━ Mary Nekoda Dunn (MD; 1929)
━ Emma Rittenhouse (MD; Apr. 1932)
━ Lillian Dunn (PA; Aug. 1932)
━ Thomas Edward Dunn Jr. (MD; 1942)
━ George Andrew Dunn (DE; 1947)
━ Joseph Dunn (MD; 1952)
━ John William Dunn (MD; 1957)
• Somerset County MD Circuit Court; Land Records, Grantee Index (1665 - 1876) [MDLandRec.net]: a Thomas Dunn Sr. deeded property (separately) to a Joseph & Thomas Dunn Jr. ━ these names match up to my 3x-great-grandfather Thomas E. Dunn Sr. & two of his sons. One of the records is a "bill of sale" from a Thomas E. Dunn Sr. to a Thomas E. Dunn Jr. listed in a "liber" dated 1892 (my relatives with the same names would've been about 60 y.o. & 29 y.o., respectively); I haven't found a date for the Joseph Dunn/Thomas Dunn Sr. record.
• U.S. Social Security Numerical ID Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007:
━ George Andrew Dunn (son, filed June 1937)
━ Joseph Dunn (son, filed August 1937)
━ John William Dunn (son, filed September 1955)

Thomas Edward Dunn Sr. has been my main genealogical brick wall since I discovered him back in mid-2020, so if anyone has any ideas or tips to help me find out more about my great-great-great-grandfather please feel free to let me know of any suggestions.

• ——— • ——— • ——— • ——— •

Cemetery Preservation events I have attended:
• April 24, 2021 ━ Overgrowth clearing event ━ Union Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, Crisfield, MD
• December 4, 2021 ━ Veterans Headstone cleaning event ━ Parsons Cemetery, Salisbury, MD (8 headstones cleaned)
• May 26, 2022 ━ Preservation Maryland event ━ Mt. Zion United Methodist Church Cemetery, Polk's Road, Mt. Vernon, MD (4 headstones cleaned)
• July 15, 2022 ━ Atlas Preservation 48 State event ━ Odd Fellow's Cemetery, Seaford, DE (3 headstones cleaned, 1 reset)
• October 8, 2022 ━ Preservation Maryland event ━ St. Mary's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Tyaskin, MD (3 headstones cleaned)
• November 5, 2022 ━ Preservation Maryland event ━ St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Berlin, MD (4 headstones cleaned)
• February 18, 2023 ━ Overgrowth cleaning event ━ Coolspring United Methodist Church Cemetery ━ Girdletree, MD

Hello! My name is Chris. I'm currently 26 years old, & I was born & raised here on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. I have loved cemeteries since I was a little kid, & starting my own genealogy journey in the spring of 2020 also kick-started my journey in documenting & preserving graves. I joined Find-a-Grave on April 6, 2020.

My family has been in Maryland (mainly on the Eastern Shore), & in most of the surrounding U.S. East Coast states for at least a couple hundred years; I've been able to confirm a few branches back to the early 1800s & prior. I have most of my known family members & ancestors in public Virtual Cemeteries [listed as "(Surname) Family"] so if you'd like to see if we share ancestors they're there to see. I also have created public Virtual Cemeteries for each generation of my direct ancestors, going from "Grandparents" to "Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandparents," if that would be easier to see if we share relations.

I try my best to be on Find-A-Grave at least once a day, so I should be available for messages or any corrections that need to be made on any memorials. I am always happy to reunite family members to ancestors & I strive to have memorials accurately informed. For corrections or memorial management, you can message me on here, use the "Edit" & "Suggest Other Edits" on the memorial in question, or you can send me an email.

• ——— • ——— • ——— • ——— •

My main family branches are:
Dunn, Johnson, Howard, Bonneville [all in Somerset County, MD], & Anderson [Swedish-speaking Finns who immigrated to America in the early 1890's from Munsala in the Ostrobothnia region on the west coast of Finland & settled in the Chesapeake Bay area].

Some extended family lines (3x-great-grandparents & beyond, with their states & counties of birth/death) are:
Moore [Somerset Co., MD], Evans [Sussex Co., DE], Lynch [MD/Sussex Co., DE], Foster, Bishop, Lewis, & Watson [all in Wilkes Co., NC], Layfield, Ennis, Maddox, & Tull [all in Somerset Co., MD], Matthews [VA], Bacon [VA], Green [Accomack Co., VA], Powell, & Tingle [both in Worcester Co., MD], Hudgins, Armstead, & Jarvis [all in Mathews Co., VA], Walston, Tyler, & Mason [all in Somerset Co., MD], 2 (as of now) separate lines of Walkers [VA & Somerset Co., MD], Jefferson [Lancaster Co., VA], & Lee [Lancaster Co. & Essex Co., VA].

Some extended Finnish "last names"/areas are: Strömming, Långbacka, Loilax/Lojlax, Näs, Träsk, Skrifvars, Mariedahl, & Rank.

• — • — • — • — • — •

My profile picture is of me with the grave of my direct paternal great-great-great-grandmother, Nekoda (Moore) Dunn [memorial ID: 119758531]. My best friend & her sister helped me locate the grave back in October 2020. She was born in Somerset County, MD in 1841, lived there for most of her life before living in Dorchester County, MD (at least in 1910), eventually ending up in Sussex County, DE by around 1911 where she passed away soon thereafter. She was buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Seaford, DE, where a number of her children have also been buried.

• ——— • ——— • ——— • ——— •

Nekoda's husband, Thomas Edward Dunn Sr. (b. ~June 1832 or 1834 Somerset Co., MD — d. between June 1900 - April 1910), is the ancestor I'm currently researching for the most, & is my main brick wall [I'd love to visit his grave & find out who his parents were so I can continue to trace my direct Dunn line].

I have not been able to find any records that show who either of his parents were; the only information I have about them is from 2 U.S. Censuses where (under Thomas E. Dunn Sr.'s entries) they're listed as being Maryland-born.
The only birth "records" I have for Thomas Sr. are from his birthplace & ages on the U.S. Censuses (1870, 1880, 1900), as well as 8 of his children's death certificates that list his birthplace as Somerset County, MD (or just simply Maryland).
I've also run into a lack of death records for him — Maryland didn't standardize filing death certificates until around 1911, & the MD State Archives don't have a death records index card for him within the timeframe his death occurred, meaning he most likely didn't receive a death certificate. I also haven't been able to find any kind of record whatsoever in regards to a burial.
The only information I can find in regards to Thomas Dunn Sr.'s passing is that he is listed as living in the Fairmount District of Somerset County, MD with his family on the farm of a 58-year-old Virginia-born woman named Belle (Arabella) Yerby [Find-a-Grave ID: 268761789], when the 1900 U.S. Census was taken on June 1 - 2; & then his wife Nekoda is listed as a widow living with their son Thomas E. Dunn Jr. & a grandson, George Rittenhouse, in Linkwood District, Dorchester County, MD, when the 1910 U.S. Census was taken on April 26. Nekoda's headstone, installed in Seaford, DE after she passed away in Oct. 1911, also lists herself as the "Wife of the late Thomas E. Dunn … of Somerset Co. MD," confirming he had passed away before his wife.

These are the "only" records I've been able to find Thomas Dunn Sr. on so far:
• MD State Archives marriage record (1861)
• 1870 U.S. Census
• 1870 U.S. Agriculture Census
• 1880 U.S. Census
• 1880 U. S. Agriculture Census
• 1900 U.S. Census
• wife Nekoda Dunn's headstone (installed ~Oct. 1911)
• death certificates of 8 children:
━ Sarah A. Dunn (PA; 1926)
━ Mary Nekoda Dunn (MD; 1929)
━ Emma Rittenhouse (MD; Apr. 1932)
━ Lillian Dunn (PA; Aug. 1932)
━ Thomas Edward Dunn Jr. (MD; 1942)
━ George Andrew Dunn (DE; 1947)
━ Joseph Dunn (MD; 1952)
━ John William Dunn (MD; 1957)
• Somerset County MD Circuit Court; Land Records, Grantee Index (1665 - 1876) [MDLandRec.net]: a Thomas Dunn Sr. deeded property (separately) to a Joseph & Thomas Dunn Jr. ━ these names match up to my 3x-great-grandfather Thomas E. Dunn Sr. & two of his sons. One of the records is a "bill of sale" from a Thomas E. Dunn Sr. to a Thomas E. Dunn Jr. listed in a "liber" dated 1892 (my relatives with the same names would've been about 60 y.o. & 29 y.o., respectively); I haven't found a date for the Joseph Dunn/Thomas Dunn Sr. record.
• U.S. Social Security Numerical ID Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007:
━ George Andrew Dunn (son, filed June 1937)
━ Joseph Dunn (son, filed August 1937)
━ John William Dunn (son, filed September 1955)

Thomas Edward Dunn Sr. has been my main genealogical brick wall since I discovered him back in mid-2020, so if anyone has any ideas or tips to help me find out more about my great-great-great-grandfather please feel free to let me know of any suggestions.

• ——— • ——— • ——— • ——— •

Cemetery Preservation events I have attended:
• April 24, 2021 ━ Overgrowth clearing event ━ Union Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, Crisfield, MD
• December 4, 2021 ━ Veterans Headstone cleaning event ━ Parsons Cemetery, Salisbury, MD (8 headstones cleaned)
• May 26, 2022 ━ Preservation Maryland event ━ Mt. Zion United Methodist Church Cemetery, Polk's Road, Mt. Vernon, MD (4 headstones cleaned)
• July 15, 2022 ━ Atlas Preservation 48 State event ━ Odd Fellow's Cemetery, Seaford, DE (3 headstones cleaned, 1 reset)
• October 8, 2022 ━ Preservation Maryland event ━ St. Mary's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Tyaskin, MD (3 headstones cleaned)
• November 5, 2022 ━ Preservation Maryland event ━ St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Berlin, MD (4 headstones cleaned)
• February 18, 2023 ━ Overgrowth cleaning event ━ Coolspring United Methodist Church Cemetery ━ Girdletree, MD