Looking for Cemetery enthusiasts! This month’s History Mystery is focused on unraveling the mysterious location of the Pruett-Mardis Cemetery in Kenton County. Or is it the Mardis Cemetery in Kenton County? Or better yet: Where exactly is Jacob Mardis (1815-1855) buried? Find-A-Grave lists Jacob as buried in the Pruett – Mardis Cemetery, off Pruett Rd. in Independence, Kenton County, Kentucky. There is no image of the marker but 24 others are interred with him. An inventory report from 1978, published in a collection of Small Kenton County Kentucky Cemeteries by the Kenton County Historical Society gives a more detailed address: 330 Pruett Rd; 1/4 miles from Route 177, but lists the city as Alexandria. The interment list of 1978 does not list Jacob at all, but a portion of the list matches the Find A Grave inventory submitted within the past five years. One characteristic that both inventories have in common is the notation about many of the stones being illegible. Which brings up the issues of ‘rumor’ being the basis for a recording, death certificates listing this as a burial, or in-person visual reporting. Most importantly, when using Google Earth to try to zero in on the exact location all we could find was open farm land, in between roads with similar names, possibly connected by fields. So… our mystery is: Where in Kenton County is Jacob Mardis buried and can anyone provide the actual GPS coordinates? A listing of the others buried there would be wonderful as well. Is this the same cemetery, two cemeteries from the same family, or totally unconnected? We know places and roads can change over time – but so can the name of a cemetery – time to get sleuthing Kenton County!
To compare the 1978 list with Find A Grave, see the report below (click image to enlarge):
free sample just need to think that the that nix desire vary.
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