Arlington National Cemetery and the Grinnells
Written by Marj Murray
Sunday, 01 May 2011 23:04 - Last Updated Monday, 09 May 2011 23:35
By Marjorie Grinols Murray
Webmaster's note: The 1997 edition of the Grinnell genealogy is out of print and no longer
available. A new edition is in the works and plans are to publish in late 2011 or early 2012.
If you have been to Arlington Cemetery then you know that only twIf you have been to Arlington
Cemetery then you know that only two presidents of the United States are buried there: JFK
and William Howard Taft. Perhaps you don’t realized that there are also two Grinnells buried
there: Henry Walton Grinnell (this was noted in Ed Grinnell’s 1984 book) and Robert H. Grinnell.
Henry Walton was easy to locate. I knew he was Henry W. Grinnell, had died on September 2,
1920. The source of these details was the cemetery office at Arlington, secured by our
daughter Heather on her trip to Washington in 1995. I simply looked him up in the new (1997)
Grinnell book’s index and found him on page 107!
I love the format of this new 3-part book. Each person in the family has a number and his or her
line is noted right there in the same paragraph. A little bit of detective work does the rest as
names are searched for. The easiest way to do this is to go back to Matthew and follow the line
forward to each generation. It helps to record it like this:
1. Matthew GREENELL
p. 1
7. Daniel GREENELL
p. 3
13. Richard GRINNELL
p. 5
46. Daniel GRINNELL
P. 11
206. Cornelius GRINNELL
p. 29
828. Henry William GRINNELL p. 59
1895. Henry Walton GRINNELL p. 107
Our Henry is buried in Section 3, Grave 4202. A map is given at the office to make it easier to
find the gravesite. We will have to do this on a future trip (I love pictures of headstones!) NOTE:
In September, 1998 when my two other daughters, Kelly Cezik and Brenda Warren, visited
Arlington looking for the Grinnells in question, they were unable to obtain any information about
Henry and Robert because they did not have the death year dates. Perhaps this is now
required, so remember to be well informed with as much data as possible when searching for
relatives in ANY cemetery.
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Arlington National Cemetery and the Grinnells
Written by Marj Murray
Sunday, 01 May 2011 23:04 - Last Updated Monday, 09 May 2011 23:35
On to Robert. Known: his name was Robert H. Grinnell and he died on May 18, 1936. Buried
Section 25, Grave 941. When I returned to the Grinnell book index and looked on page 81, I
could find only two Robert H.’s, both of whom were born too late to be the one I wanted: Robert
Hall Grinnell b. 1939 and Robert Halley Grinnell b. 1944.
BACK TO SQUARE ONE. So the big question is - do any of our readers know of this particular
Robert? If so, please submit your information to the editor and we will publish it in the next
newsletter.
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