This is a story I have not told before… but one that Yerks cousin Gibby Iannotti will appreciate. Many years ago I learned from Gibby of a gravestone of one of her great ancestors. It may be her great x2 Grandparents. Emeline Yerks married Benjamin Schenck. She indicated that their headstone also has someone named Lucinda Y Tompkins on it. To make a long story, short… Lucinda Hadden, married William Townsend Yerks. They are Colleen Hayes 3x Great Grandparents and probably the same for Gibby. After William died in 1900, Lucinda a man named Charles Tompkins in 1905, just two years before her death (age 62).

Well.. I lost contact with Gibby but was still determined to find that headstone to confirm it was her. So I drove to New York and pulled into the Oaklawn Cemetery in Mount Kisco. It was quite large and I really had no idea where to start. So I drove around the Cemetery until I suddenly felt the need to stop. I parked the car, looked around and then climbed a large hill along the driver’s side of the car. When I arrived at the top of the hill and encountered my first gravestone, there it was… the very one I was looking for. It could not be seen from where I was parked. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack!

To this day, I am a bit creeped out by it as I am sure someone wanted me to find it.I couldn’t get over my find. I took a picture of the car in the exact position in the Cemetery to remind myself of this story. Absolutely Crazy!