Unbroken Line of Headstones

What is your longest unbroken line of headstones? This idea came from Linda Stufflebean's blog, Empty Branches on the Family Tree. She got the idea from Genea-Musings. In Linda's example, she had 7 confirmed headstones in her largest unbroken line of headstones. I can only manage five. That's what you get when your earliest immigrant to America came in 1834.


1. I start with the most recent, my mother, Agnes Catherine Panther Miller (1931-2017) in All Saints Cemetery in Columbus, Nebraska.

All the rest of the headstones in this line are found in Cavalry Cemetery, West Point, Iowa.

2. Then her mother, Elizabeth Menke Panther (1893-1986)

3. Next up is her mother, Mary Harmeyer Menke (1867-1949)

4. From here, you can go to both of her parents since both lines go the same distance. The first step is the headstone for both of her parents, Joseph A. Harmeyer (1829-1903) and Maria Anna Kempker Harmeyer (1831-1887)

5. Then Gerhardt (1797-1890) and Mary Elizabeth Harmeyer (1795-1860)

5. And finally, Johann Heinrich Kempker (1797-1872)

Five is the best unbroken chain of headstones I can do. For most, this is really a question of when did your ancestors immigrate to America. For those whose ancestors came earlier, it's likely they have a much longer chain of headstones since those in Europe either no longer exist or we just don't have a way to get pictures of them.

--Matt