Massey Cemetery - Newton County, MO

07/08/2025

With Granby Miners Museum – I just made it onto their weekly engagement list by being one of their top engagers! 🎉

07/04/2025

Yesterday (7/3) was his birthday. I wrote a nice obit, but the computer garbled it up... check back later today when we will try again.
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07/04/2025

07/03/2025

Oh friends…. Rikki had a great day at the Granby Miners Museum! THEN, enjoyed the special at JJ’s Cafe. On to couple of cemeteries in town.

In the late afternoon- the focal point of the day…. A trip to Massey Cemetery!

Here are a few photos!

More to come…

07/02/2025

Why the vintage adding machine, you ask? Well, I needed somewhere to set the cards at an angle to the shadows from my hands/phone wouldn’t be in the pics. Bonus, the cards are in alphabetical order and flipping the front one down helped keep them that way. Necessity is the mother of invention even at the Granby Miners Museum!

Rikki Renee Smith
Newton County Cemetery Preservation
Jasper County Cemetery Preservation Society
Massey Cemetery - Newton County, MO

07/02/2025

Granby Miners Museum is an absolute SW Missouri treasure! I went for the resources and fell in love! Jan and Steve were awesome!

Here are just a FEW of the photos I took today as I accomplished my goals:

1) Massey Cemetery - Newton County, MO research on Miner’s (very productive) AND

2) looking up the Butler Family for a couple of genealogists who I have never met, and maybe they have never met, but maybe they are in branches of the same family tree! I hope they connect the dots and find lots of good information in the photos I sent them!

If you are looking for an amazing Genealogy group for families In the Ozarks, i recommend SW Missouri Genealogy group!

This is what it is all about. Sharing formation, digging into local history, and having fun along the way!

07/01/2025

BREAKTHROUGH!

Sometimes small cemeteries hide mysteries, and sometimes those mysteries are infuriating, tangled, and (dare I say) wild-looking family trees!

There are 21 burials listed in the low hanging fruit for Massey Cemetery. By low hanging fruit, I mean a 1980s survey book (republished in 204) and a Find a Grave listing of memorials.

During the initial days of figuring out who all was there, Rikki created two family trees. All but two burials fell into them!

BUT, the BREAKTHROUGH.

One of those, lets call them outliers, married into one of the main families- and it is on Rikki’s family line!

It is WILD!

06/30/2025

Looking for quick answers about burials documented (currently via Find. Grave and cemeteey surveys)? Here is a link to the cemetery Find A Grabe page!

Remember- this is low hanging fruit and should only be considered a hint in the cemetery and genealogy worlds! The previous survey indicates 35 or more fieldstones and no headstones in either of two walled family plots.

Lots of work to do! Join us on the journey!!

About 2 1/2 miles west by northwest of Granby, Missouri No Masseys are reported as being buried there. Mortons owned land south of the cemetery and...

06/30/2025

This is me…. Up at 130 am chatting with a virtual stranger about the developments and discoveries at Massey Cemetery over the past couple of weeks!

06/30/2025

I’m thinking this will come in really handy re: Massey Cemetery miners!

06/30/2025

Here are some of our favorite resources for all things local history, genealogy, records and cemetery fun!

Jasper County Cemetery Preservation Society

Newton County Cemetery Preservation

Lawrence County MO Cemetery Preservation Society

History from the Jasper County Record Center

SW Missouri Genealogy group

Post Art Library and Joplin Public Library’s Local History Department

Webb City Area Genealogical Society

Granby Miners Museum

And so many more - if you are looking for a connection, just reach out!