Looking for ancestors in Tennessee

Betsy begins the tombstone hunt

Dad had a business trip to Knoxville, TN this week, and it just so happened that Betsy was on spring break the entire week. She and mom loaded up and went along for the three days and two nights. Dad randomly picked a town (Harriman) in Tennessee to spend the first night. The next morning, Aunt Carmen - who had been doing heavy research on family history - called and said that if we were near Roane County, we could probably find the tombstone of their great-great-grandfather, Thomas Green.

From jackwhitesfrontporch.com:

THOMAS GREEN (1770-1842) married (1792 in Pittsylvania County, VA) AMY KEESEE (1776-1854). They brought their fine family from VA to Roane in 1811. He bought (E, p. 239) 50 acres from Lewis Kirkpatrick in Swan Pond, and later 100 acres on Emory River from Thomas Hall (E, p. 523). In 1826, Thomas Green was paying taxes on 372 acres, and his sons Theoderick and Bluford, were living nearby. Thomas' name appears in various records, but in general, he maintained a low profile. Thomas died in 1842, and Amy died in 1851. They are buried in the Swan Pond Methodist Church Cemetery.

Unbelievably, the cemetery was less than three miles from the hotel at a church called Swan Pond Methodist Church. A quick trip over to the cemetery after breakfast provided a nice spring-time outing. Every tombstone was inspected, but unfortunately, the tombstone could not be found. About a third of the stones were weathered to the point that they could not be read. Many more were missing.

Lucinda McNew Bailey was killed by her second husband in 1902; her son was murdered a few years later and was buried next to her (no relation, but interesting)