Like many genealogists, I love visiting cemeteries. One of my favorites is All Saints Cemetery in Oakley, St. Mary's County, Maryland. There, I have the opportunity to commune with my ancestors reaching all the way back to the mid-19th century. Dozens of my Dent forebears have their final resting place in this peaceful church yard.
The oldest of my ancestors found here are my 4X-great grandparents, George Blackistone (1780-1842) and Rebecca Hebb Goldsmith (1790-1851). They are buried side-by-side with beautifully engraved markers. And--the blessing that every genealogist prays for--their markers identify their parents! Yes!
Five of their eight children are also buried at All Saints, including my 3X-great grandmother Leila (also Lillia) Dent Blackistone Dent, 1815-1884. (Yes, there was a lot of intermarriage among the Blackistones and the Dents.) Leila married
John Francis Dent, about whom I have written previously. Notice the lovely design carved into Lillia's marker, a lily suggesting her name.
John Dent's parents are buried at the family cemetery in Charles County MD, but John Francis Dent is buried at All Saints, along with his sister Sarah and brother Walter.
John and Lillia Dent had eight children, of whom four are buried at All Saints: Fannie (and her Dent husband and cousin, Joseph Hugh Dent), Kate (Joseph Dent's first wife), John Marshall, and Robert Taney Beauregard Dent, 1861-1872, the last dying at age ten and remembered with the touching words:
Our Dear Little Boy and small lamb carving.
Joseph Hugh Dent, the son of William Barton Wade Dent (a cousin of John, and a member of Congress from Georgia) is buried at All Saints with both of his wives (both daughters of John and Lillia.) Notice the Confederate symbol on his stone. Like many of his Dent relatives, Joseph served in the Confederate army. After the War, he moved from Georgia to Maryland and married both of his wives there.
Joseph's first wife, Kate Rebecca Dent 1842-1872, died after only about a year of marriage, shortly after giving birth to her only child, also named Kate Rebecca. Baby Kate died a few weeks after her mother. Their shared monument shows an angel holding a baby, representing both Kates.
John Marshall Dent Sr., my 2x-great grandfather is also buried at All Saints, along with his wife, Ida Elizabeth Wright, whom he met and married in Atlanta GA. And yes, he did serve in the Confederate army.
Ida's mother, Elizabeth Caroline Dent Wright, (my 3X-great grandmother and the sister of Joseph Hugh Dent mentioned above) is also buried at All Saints. She and her husband, Judge William Felix Wright, came from Georgia to visit their daughter. When her husband unexpected died while on this trip (1887), she stayed in Maryland with her daughter until her death in 1914. Judge Wright also has a memorial in this cemetery, although it is not clear if he is actually buried here. His obituary says he was buried in Alexandria VA where he died, and he also has a memorial in the Atlanta cemetery. So who knows where he really ended up.
Eight of the ten children of John and Ida are buried at All Saints, along with their respective spouses: John Marshall Jr., William Francis, Wade Gilbert, Frances Katherine, Lillia, Walter Pinkney, Ida Louise, and Arthur St. Clair Dent.
My great grandfather, John Marshall Dent Jr. and his wife, Mary Peterson Turner are buried here. All of their children, however, are buried elsewhere, including my grandmother, Elizabeth Dent Scrivener, who is buried with her husband Frank Scrivener, in New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore.
Mary Turner's sister, Bessie Turner, the wife of Wade Hampton Blackistone, is also buried here.
There are a total of about 450 people in this churchyard, and I bet I could find a relationship to a very large percentage of that number. At least a quarter of the burials are Blackistones and Dents. So, this is a place filled with family history for me: politicians, judges, soldiers, doctors, housewives, loving mothers and fathers, children who died young, folks who spent their whole lives in St. Mary's County and folks who died far from their birthplace. I love walking through a place like this and discovering the connections.
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