By Joseph Back

In every family history, the question of where to start is perhaps the most important one.

For Cordenio and Mary Severance, that would be the Cedarhurst Mansion off Keats Avenue and the Cottage Grove Cemetery just down the road on 70th Street, the latter of which records their final resting place along with birth and death dates.

Knowing from the gravestones that Cordenio was born in 1862 and died in 1925 while Mary was born in 1863 and died in 1925, suggests a connection.

Alexandra, of whom we made brief mention last week, is buried in the vicinity of Mary and Cordenio but with no dates to seek.

Now what? For those amateur genealogists unwilling or else unable to spend large sums of money for professional help as such, there are many sources.

One is the well-known Ancestry. com, with the caveat that leads may or may not pan out on a given entry, and the prospect of false leads based on how one decides a “hint” and whether or not to enter it into the official

See CEDARHURST Page 8

Cordenio A. Severance looks out from the wall at Cedarhurst Mansion off Keats Avenue this past fall. Photo of photo by Joseph Back. CEDARHURST

FROM PAGE 1 family tree. Ancestry isn’t the only resource, however, and cross-referencing can help avoid mistakes—along with knowing cursive and the incongruous lettering and/or different interpretations thereof.

That’s another story. For the present we match Ancestry to Find A Grave to reveal two more family members, “Alexandra Severance” and “Baby Severance,” the latter mentioned on the granite obelisk that marks the family’s general burial site at Cottage Grove Cemetery. Next week we return to the living past, seeking more connections derived from a greater diversity of information.

After all, there are limits to what gravestones, can tell you. Written records and the voices of the past when still living, can tell more—at least potentially.

Marked with a smartphone GPS dot and just up the hill from a white maintenance shed on the main road into Cottage Grove Cemetery, the final resting places of the Cordenio and Mary Severance with family are marked with an obelisk, their tombstones at ground level to the west. Photos by Joseph Back.