Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice Durrell Cemetery, Asylum Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History Sites How To Use This Site Warning & Disclaimer Asylum Township Page Flagholders & Commemorative Plaques of Organizations No Commercial Use Say Hello to Joyce  Photo by Joyce M. Tice May 2000 This is Part One See Also Part Two The Cemetery was read by Susan Miller and submitted to Tri-Counties by her

Joyce's Search Tip - December 2007 - Do You Know that you can search just the Bradford County Cemetery Records on the site by using the Cemeteries -Bradford button in the Partitioned search engine at the bottom of the Current What's New Page? If you use that partition follow these steps to search just one cemetery.  1. Choose Cemeteries - Bradford.  2. Enter part of the cemetery name [ie Ballard or Berrytown] AND a surname. 3. Choose the Find ALL Words option. Then it will find just the pages with that surname in the one cemetery you indicated.  See also - Bradford County Cemetery Addresses

Many of the local residents refer to the cemetery as the Benjamin cemetery as many of the deceased are either Benjamin or married into the Benjamin family. The first listing of the Durell Cemetery appeared in the "1889" Bradford County Tax Assessment records. The cemetery was in exsistence prior to the date above, we know that because of the death dates of the many people that died before 1889 and it is said that since the cemetery is exempt from taxes it may not have been necessary to have listed the cemetery as part of their tax records. Stephen Durell, for whom Durell was named, located at the mouth of the Durell creek about 1789 to 1790. He built a house and a sawmill there. Stephen Durell was said to be a quiet and respectable man advanced in years. He was thought to have come from Connecticut. Durell was at one time the name of the whole township and it included Frenchtown, Macedonia, Kerrick Hill, Ellis Hill, Marshview, and including part of Rob Wood Mountain, from 1842 to 1850 and it is listed as Durell Township. The big Bradford County map of 1858, which is based on the statictics from the 1850 census, indicates Durell as a well populated community. The Cemetery was read by Susan Miller and submitted to Tri-Counties by her
 

Joyce,

I'm currently doing research on Benjamins in Asylum Twp.  I've just found a person buried in Durell Cemetery, first in the listing by Susan Miller and second in the reading I did two years later.

As you may recall, I re-read the cemetery because Ms. Miller had listed people as buried in this cemetery when, in fact, they were not.  They were buried in the Decker Cemetery.

Then today, I found the following discrepancies between her reading and my own.

Durell Cemetery - Read by McCracken
Benjamin John L.      31 May 1815  4 Aug 1891
Benjamin Mary          ----        4 Apr 1893 his wife. Same stone as
John L. Benjamin
Durell Cemetery - Read by Susan Miller
Benjamin John L.       ----        4 Aug 1891
Benjamin Mary          2 May 1822  4 Apr 1893 his wife. Same stone as
John L. above.
Durell Cemetery - Read by McCracken, 2000
Benjamin Elias     1841 1916
Benjamin Hannah    1840 1916   Same stone as Elias above.
Durell Cemetery - Read by Susan Miller
Benjamin Elias     1841 1915
Benjamin Hannah    1840 1916   w/o Elias Benjamin

If you look closely at the first two, John L. Benjamin and his wife you will see that they are completely different.  She has given her his birth and death dates and the birth date is completely incorrect.

Elias Benjamin, the date of his death is incorrect in her reading.

On page two of her reading, everything below Lucinda Benjamin (Beginning with Simeon Decker) should not be there.  All of these people are buried in the Decker Cemetery as you can see from my reading of Decker.

I don't believe I know Ms. Miller, and she may well be a nice, sweet lady.  But her glaring errors, insertion of information that isn't on headstones and failing to identify it as such, and her apparent general inattention to detail are just not acceptable.  We are researchers.  We cannot tolerate such sloppy or forced work.  These pages serve many who cannot go to these cemeteries themselves to verify the information, and they should not have to.

Finding errors on the two listings I was seeking makes me leery of all of her work.  For heavens sake, I have no idea where she came up with the reading of the John L. and Mary Benjamin entries.  I know that you don't want to hurt her feelings, but her pages must go.  Failing that I will feel obligated to continue this issue through the list.

As an aside, on both of her Durell Cem pages, you have a photo of the Decker Cemetery, not the Durell.

I'm truly sorry for all of this, but I've been a researcher an analyst of one kind or another all of my adult life.  There are tests and standards and I cannot compromise the integrity of the philosophy of research.

Dick McCracken
Towanda, PA

Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Published On Tri-Counties Site On 09/13/1998 By Joyce M. Tice Email: Joyce M. Tice You are the visitor since the counter was installed on SEP 13, 1998  Counter reset when page moved 27 JAN 2005