Tombstone Tuesday--Alton Cemetery--More Family

I love going cemetery hopping with my crazy Aunt Glenna.  She and another cousin had pretty much researched my dad's side of the family back to colonial times.  We have visited my mothers family stones up north, and previously her and Dad's family cemeteries to the south.
Back in late summer of 2006, a few months before my dad died, he and his younger and older sisters and I went once more to make the rounds of his family cemeteries in Kent county.  By this time my dad was unable to get out of the car much, so he sat the car as his old sister, Aunt Glenna and I roamed and pointed out the stones.

One of my favorite family cemeteries was Alton Cemetery, in Vergennes township, Kent county, Michigan.  Many of the names that are sprinkled through the 1800's section of my family tree are found here: Aldrich, Barto, Allen, Condon, Ford.

An old church sits in one corner of the cemetery.  From near there is this view of the cemetery.  There is a great variety of stones here in Alton cemetery.  You can see the tall white marble, some more ornately carved stones, simple slabs, and on the left one of those wonderful white zinc stones that stand up so well to the elements.

This stone is for Edna Barto Ford on my grandfather's side of the family.  I believe her husband Warren Ford is also here.  This was the second connection in my family of the Ford family.  Earlier, the Ford family had married into the Cross line on my grandmother's side.  This is the source of my great family mystery that drives me crazy.  If, as a child, my grandmother remembers Gerald Ford at Ford family reunions, why can't I find a connection to his adopted family?  The fact that my grandmother's divorced mother later married my grandfather's widowed father only serve to complicate matters.  But isn't that what makes genealogy so much fun?

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Also to be found here are the parents of Edna Barto.  This stone has faded since the first time Aunt Glenna remembers it, so I tried to capture the inscription.  This side is for Fanny (Frances) Clark Barto, and on the next side is her husband Barlo.  Of all the unusual names I have in my family, my favorite is Barlo Barto.

 Here is a picture of him in livelier times.
Finally are the stones of my great-grandparents, the stones Aunt Glenna was studying in the first picture. Grandpa's Dad, and

 Grandma's mother.

Resting peacefully together in Alton cemetery.