The Old Cemetery



Well, my story about finding an Albro ancestor, is actually about looking for Phil's great-great-great grandmother, Amey Hopkins, wife of Stephen Albro. Amey was born about 1761 and died unknown. She and Stephen were married in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, September 4, 1791. Stephen was born about 1759, in West Greenwich, Rhode Island and died about 1820 in Cortland County, New York.

Phil had searched all of his resources but couldn't seem to find where Amey was buried. Stephen and Amey were originally from the area where I live, West Greenwich, Rhode Island, so I thought of checking the Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Transcription Project. There was no listing for an Amey Albro so I thought of checking for an Amey Hopkins, thinking perhaps they had split up, perhaps her maiden name was on the stone, and perhaps she was buried in the Hopkins family lot. I know that's a lot of perhaps but I did find an Amy Hopkins in the Hopkins family lot in West Greenwich, born 1771 and died August 6,1837 so I thought maybe this could be her. The listing said WG028 HOPKINS LOT, WEST GREENWICH, NEW LONDON TPKE ->10 ft. E of tele. pole # 0334. I knew where that particular country road was and since I had the pole number I thought it shouldn't be that hard to find. Yeah right!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the area (probably everyone out there) West Greenwich is a very rural area of Rhode Island and most of it had been taken over by the state many years ago in preparation for The Big River Reservoir, something which never took place. Most of New London Turnpike was part of this acquired land and the area has been uninhabited by all two legged creatures for about 40 years now. A portion of this dirt road is actually closed off to the public by iron gates, making it inaccessible to cars, so I decided to check it out by bicycle since the pole number I was looking for was after the gate.

I followed the pole numbers for a while and was up to about #320 when suddenly there seemed to be no more pole numbers! In fact there were no more poles since most of them had been knocked down or cut down. Continuing on for about a mile and a half or two, I finally reached the gate at the other end, not seeing any cemetery, and finding I had passed the pole number I was looking for by the time I reached the point where the pole numbers began again! That meant I had to go back!

On the way back I tried to search the wooded areas on both sides of the road hoping to see a cemetery before I made my way back to pole #320! At this point it was about an hour away from darkness so i was beginning to worry that I would not find it and get back before darkness fell! I had gone at least a mile to a mile and a half back when suddenly I saw something that looked like a stone sticking up on a hill in the woods. It was behind a bunch of pine trees, on the right hand side of the road. As I made my way through the pines, and up the hill I noticed a stone wall and beyond that some grave stones. This was it...this was the Hopkins Cemetery. I thought wouldn't this be something if I finally solved this mystery and found Phil's missing Amy Hopkins?!

Unfortunately the stones were very old and most of them were unreadable. Of all the ones I could read, none belonged to Amy. So alas my search was futile since it would take an expert to read them. While this was disappointing to me I found it to be quite an adventure and therefore I don't regret embarking upon this search. So my advice to you is...if you're thinking of searching for a lost ancestor...do it! Maybe you'll even be luckier than I was!

- gsilverman

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