Monday, November 27, 2006

Another Piece of Florida Gone...But This Time, It's Personal

I was in St. Augustine with my parents yesterday taking pictures of parts of the Old City for my brother, who is writing his Bachelor's thesis on the Minorcans of Florida. We stopped by The Mission (It's called something else, but we've always just called it "The Mission") to take some pictures there, and I figured this would be a good time to visit the grave of my great, great, great grandfather, who is buried in Tolomato Cemetery, which surrounds The Mission. After taking some pictures and stopping for a moment at the Knights of Columbus memorial to the victims of abortion, we began looking for the gravesite of Pvt. Domingo Pacetti and his wife Antonia. We believed that they were somewhere near the abortion memorial, taking off of the memory from many past visits by my mom and dad. But neither he or she were anywhere to be found. We scoured the entire cemetery...twice...seeing familiar names such as Mickler, Andreu, and Pellicer, but there were no Pacettis to be found anywhere. Our ancestor's graves were gone. They simply disappeared. They've been there for over a century, and they are simply gone. Maybe somebody in the family relocated them, maybe they feel victim to vandalism (the cemetery has been vandalized many times in the past,) and...I would be disappointed if this is the case...maybe the abortion memorial took their gravesite. The memorial is nice, but I would be (expletive) (expletive) if it stood over the gravesite of my ancestors. There for years and years, and simply gone. Sound familiar?

I may go over to Mill Creek Cemetery, where a lot of our family is buried, and just see if they are there. It would make sense, because Domingo and Antonia did live (and die) on his father's land grant in Mill Creek (around what is now Bakersville.) But, still, what happened to the Pacettis at Tolomato Cemetery?

Please, if anybody knows there wherabouts of Private Domingo Pedro Pacetti and Mrs. Antonia Hernandez Pacetti, tell me. Both my mother and I are deeply hurt, and we want to know what happened. Thanks.

11 comments:

John Cowart said...

This is so strange. Maybe if you contacted the St Augustine Historical Society somebody there might have a clue about where the graves were relocated.

SophieMae said...

I've spent most of my puter time this morning reading your archives. It's wonderful to know that there are still some crackers left who love Florida and care so much about its heritage. My time is up now, but I'll be back to read more ASAP.

Anonymous said...

It is so disturbing that you found your family grave markers gone. That is an immeasurable loss to history and to your family. I am sorry to read of it.

MinorcanMeteorolgist said...

jc - Maybe so. I need to contact them anyway.

sophiemae - Thanks so much for reading! I apreciate your taking the time to leave me a comment. I really enjoy reading your blog, too...
I felt the same way you do about knowing there are other Florida Crackers out there. Thanks for stopping by!

threecollie - Thanks a lot. I won't completely give up hope until I talk to some of the family and go down to Mill Creek cemetery. Hopefully I can do so this weekend. Thanks so much for the concern.

Anonymous said...

Where's the post about your big brother?

MinorcanMeteorolgist said...

ha ha ha, I wonder who this "anonymous" is?

Anonymous said...

I also heard that your big brother married someone smart - with an extensive meterological vocabulary. Is that true? If so, when will you post about her?

MinorcanMeteorolgist said...

anonymous - nimbocumulus

Anonymous said...

Don't know when you posted but I was standing at his graveside on 11-28-07. tpacetti@aol.com

Lea C. said...

I'm looking at a picture of the headstone of Pvt. Domingo P. Pacetti, Sr., Co H, 2 FLA Cav Regt, CSA Dec 20, 1828 July 3 1893 located at Mill Creek. Hope this helps ease your mind. Some of my "oldies" were disinterred and moved to a mass grave to make way for a bridge. Their headstones were used as balast for the bridge. I felt your pain when you thought yours were gone.

Lea C. said...

BTW - the picture is located in a book called Confederate Veterans Buried in St. Johns County, FL by James Davis