Chad Comer lives in Gamaliel, Kentucky. He first joined Find a Grave® in 2009 when he began researching his own family’s genealogy.
Family History
Chad knew many of his ancestors are buried in the Gamaliel Cemetery in Gamaliel, Monroe County, Kentucky.
There weren’t many of my family members that had Find a Grave memorials at that time, so I decided to make theirs. After I made their memorials, I decided to photograph and create memorials for an entire row in the cemetery. I really enjoyed it and decided to do another row. Before I knew it, I had completed the entire cemetery of just under 2000 graves at that time. From there I did other cemeteries, completely photographing and creating memorials for those who didn’t have one. Within three years I had completed 37 cemeteries in three counties and two states (Monroe County, Kentucky, & Macon and Clay Counties in Tennessee).
Leaving a Legacy
My favorite cemetery is the Gamaliel Cemetery, in Gamaliel, Kentucky. This cemetery had some 600 burials marked with either a plain fieldstone or nothing at all. I wanted to mark those graves with 5×10” granite markers which had their names and dates on them. The cemetery has kept excellent records over the years, so I got the record book and started gathering their information.
Two days after Christmas 2010, Chad began a Facebook page called “Friends of Gamaliel Cemetery” to help raise funds to add markers to the 600 graves that had no markers to memorialize the life of those laid to rest in the Gamaliel Cemetery. He was able to find a company that could provide 5×10 granite markers with the decedents’ names and dates on them if they were known.
An older part of the Gamaliel Cemetery has five large slabs of stone covering the original graves of some original settlers and their young children. In a desire to honor them, the group made a special marker (see below) to show who was buried in these older graves, including James Crawford. Crawford is in the middle of the slab graves and marked by a modern gravestone. He was a native of Ireland who immigrated to Kentucky as one of the first settlers in the area. He worked as a blacksmith in the community and later served with Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812 as a captain. “Old Jim” Crawford along with another citizen donated 10 acres in which the city of Gamaliel was founded. In 1836, he also donated the land for the Gamaliel Cemetery, which was 28 years before he passed away.
In cases where not much information is known about the individual buried, Chad’s group still honors them as best they can. For instance, they were able to replace a small field stone (see the photo on the left) for 1 Unknown. The stone shown on the right now sits in place of the field stone:
This project has been able to raise enough money to start marking at least a few graves each year. To date, they have marked over 400 graves with only around 200 more to mark! Two examples of the graves that have been marked are: Infant Jenkins and Infant Riggs.
My Friends (of Gamaliel Cemetery) group has leveled and repaired countless headstones in Gamaliel and other surrounding cemeteries. We also flag the veteran graves for Memorial Day and have set or replaced over 40 military markers. All of this started from my love and interest in Find a Grave.
The best part of Find a Grave, for me, is when a descendant who has never seen a loved one’s headstone, thanks me for posting a picture. One person wrote: “You have covered the three counties that most of my mother’s family lived in so I run into your name daily. Just wanted to take a minute to say thank you.” Another person commented, “Thank you so much for posting the headstone picture of my 5th great grandfather! I would like to make a pilgrimage to see the headstone in person.”
I have three children who help with my many cemetery projects. I hope my passion for cemetery preservation carries over to them.
Chad, we appreciate your contributions and efforts in our Find a Grave community. We love that you were able to bring your local community together to take care of your city cemetery and remember those who did not have gravestones. Thank you for all you do!
We know Chad is one of the many wonderful volunteers in our Find a Grave community. Do you know a Find a Grave member who would make a good candidate for Volunteer of the Month? If so, we welcome your suggestions. Please send an email with details of their work to feedback@findagrave.com.
Congratulations, Chad!
Only after retirement did I become involved in Findagrave. For some years I did photo other graves on request. However the years passing have required me to remove my name as a searcher.
I am touched by Chad’s dedication to this effort. My hope is others of the younger generation will develop their interest in preserving the records of all the memories of all those living before us.
My sincere Kudos to FINDAGRAVE, one of the best sites for our interest, and I have enjoyed same.
Congratulations Chad. Loved reading your story.
Thank you for all your hard work. Even though I do not have any relatives at this cemetery I know you have brought happiness to many others. Your dedication is much appreciated. Thank you. Melanie
Enjoyed reading about your passion for old cemeteries. I understand your feelings, as I to share many of your interest. Blessings to you and your family and I to hope they carry on your work.
This was such a heartwarming story. Kudos for all your wonderful work for the betterment of your community.
Thank you, Chad for your commitment and desire to save not only your ancestry but so many others. You are a blessing to all of us
We need people like this gentleman, who will help to record graves and their information! Thank you sir for doing such a great job!
What a wonderful story. Your dedication to preserving the memory of those who have passed, for their relatives is just so great. I know myself how disappointing it is to know that a ancestor is buried in a cemetery, but no stone is found & no records.
Chad, What dedication and ambition in helping acknowledge peoples burial sites. You went far beyond what other people would do. I can tell doing this means so much to you in helping families find their loved ones burial sites. Find a Grave has been a big help in my research!
Thank You Chad, I too am a FindaGrave.com volunteer I really Know why you do this. I have really enjoyed my many times alone in these, many times forsaken places, doing what I could do at the time to make the graves better cleaner more readable and findable. There is so much neglect in so many old cemeteries around the country. It makes me very sad to see it so much but it’s not just a random thing , there are a few cemeteries that do a good job of keeping up the place, a few. So press on my friend press on. I feel encouraged by your story, I think I am going to try and start a grass roots group to do some of the same things you have done.
🎉 Congrats + thanks for all you do! 👏🏼
Thank you, Chad, for your dedication. I know it is so appreciated by many. I’m partial to Kentucky, as my late husband was from there, Winchester, and I will be laid to rest beside him someday in Winchester. I’ve always loved visiting cemeteries, the lives they represent and the history. It is a truly noble gesture of you and the other amazing folks who contribute to findagrave. I find a ton of information on my own genealogy research there.
Congratulations Chad, and thank you for your love and dedication to a great work. It’s a true labor of love that is appreciated beyond words!
That’s amazing, Chad. Thank you for your hard work on the stones and especially for encouraging others to become involved.
What a wonderful message that shows the spirit of giving back in a different way than most. A lot of us that do Find a Grave and are Researchers and Ancestry Members , Family Trees is our living, we eat sleep and breathe it .
I resonated with him in so many ways. My health keeps me from being as active as I wish I could be hear.
Happy to know he is enjoying his life as a volunteer. This world needs more like him and her , have met many like him.
Thank you Find a Grave for being here
Chad, your an inspiration to many. We could sure use a person like you in Ardmore Ok. Keep up the great work!!