Category: Vital Statistics

Sympathy Sunday: Madeleine Hoffmann

Posted on by spuddled

Our 11th recurring theme for 2026 is Sympathy Sunday, so you can assume this post will be at least somewhat depressing. In past years I’ve highlighted a “sympathy” theme from time to time, though in those instances I wasn’t always posting on Sundays, so it was actually Sympathy Saturday. Of course, I also had Funeral Card Friday, Sunday’s Obituary, Tombstone Tuesday…

Anyway, we are directing today’s sympathy at my second great-grandaunt, Madeleine Hoffmann. She was born 9 May 1839 in Mackwiller, Alsace, France. She was the daughter of Nicolas and Marie Madeleine (Freyermuth) Hoffmann and was the fourth of nine children born to them. She was born three years after Jacob Hoffmann, our emigrant ancestor.

Her civil birth record confirms her birthdate and place, though it suggests the spelling of her first name may actually have been Madelaine. It further notes that she was born at 7 a.m., the legitimate daughter of Nicolas Hoffmann, aged 38, a journalier or day laborer and of Madelaine Freyermuth, 30. The two witnesses who came forward to confirm the details regarding Madelaine’s birth were Chrétien Friederich, a 35-year-old weaver, and Nicolas Bach, a 30-year-old day laborer. Chrétien’s wife, Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann, was Madelaine’s paternal aunt. Marie Elisabeth and Nicolas’s mother was named Caroline Bach, so it seems likely Nicolas Bach was a relative as well.1

Sadly, the next information I have for Madelaine is her death record from 1842. This record confirms her death took place at 8 a.m. on 6 June 1842 in Mackwiller and that she was three years old. Her parentage details are repeated here: her father Nicolas Hoffmann was now 43 and a day laborer, listed as born in Mackwiller. Her mother Madelaine was 37 and was born in Weyer. There were again two witnesses. The first this time was Charles Freyermuth, 37, a stonemason. He is listed as a neighbor of Madelaine, though it seems plausible he may also have been a relative since he and Madelaine’s mother both shared the Freyermuth surname. The second witness was Martin Faess (if my paleography skills are holding up). He was a 49-year-old weaver, and AI tells me that the blurry word describing his relationship to Madelaine is actually oncle (“uncle”).2

I’ll have to keep researching to see where he fits into the family tree (assuming AI knows what it’s talking about here). Especially since the very next record in the Mackwiller registre de décès (death register) is for a Marguerithe Faess, aged 11, the daughter of this same Martin Faess and his wife Marguerithe Anthony, who died exactly two weeks after Madelaine.

These records for both girls are bittersweet. Since both died so young, they would not have had any descendants or a larger impact on society by which they would be remembered, but because these records do exist, we can at least commemorate them here in a small way.

  1. Registres paroissiaux et documents d’état civil de la commune de Mackwiller > Etat civil > Registres d’état civil > Naissances > 1826-1852 ↩︎
  2. Registres paroissiaux et documents d’état civil de la commune de Mackwiller > Etat civil > Registres d’état civil > Décès > 1824-1846 ↩︎
Life and Death: Marguérithe Kurtz…and Lizzie

Life and Death: Marguérithe Kurtz…and Lizzie

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s main anniversary is the birthdate of my 3G-grandmother, Marguérithe Kurtz. She was born on 4 August 1820 in Butten, Alsace, the daughter of André and Marguérithe (Bauer) Kurtz. She had younger siblings named Caroline and André. She appears with her birth family in the 1836 Butten census.

Marguérithe Kurtz Birth Record
France, Bas-Rhin, Parish and Civil Registration, 1525-1912

On 18 July 1845 Marguérithe married Philippe Schmidt, also from Butten. The couple appears in Butten census records from both 1851 and 1856. They had at least four children: Christian, born 1847; Christine, born 1851; Philipp, born 1858; and Andreas, born 1863. Christine would marry Jacob Hoffmann in 1875; they were my 2G-grandparents who would emigrate to the U.S. in 1883.

By that time Christine’s father was no longer living; he died in Butten in 1864 at age 46. Marguérithe, however, was still living. She would die on 18 December 1895, still in Butten. Christine’s three siblings also remained in France, dying in 1907, 1933, and 1898.

To me, though, August 4 will always be “Lizzie Day.” It was on this day in 1892 that Andrew and Abby (Gray) Borden were killed with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts. I’ve found the story of Lizzie Borden fascinating since I was very small (see my earlier post), so imagine my excitement when I discovered that she was my half sixth cousin 5 times removed. My mom and I shared this true crime/mystery addiction (Lizzie, the Michigan Murders, Trixie Belden and Ginny Gordon), and even though my connection to Lizzie is on my dad’s side, Mom and I spent a night at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast and even “celebrated” Lizzie Day once by preparing a replica August 4 meal (minus the mutton broth). So tomorrow I’ll remember Mom, her great-great-grandmother Marguérithe, and our Lizzie Day celebrations.

Schmidt and Schmitt: an Anniversary in May

Schmidt and Schmitt: an Anniversary in May

Posted on by spuddled

This week’s commemoration is of the 26 May 1839 wedding of my third great-grandaunt Christine Schmitt to Chrétien Schmidt. Christine was the daughter of Philippe and Anna Catharina (Bauer) Schmidt and the sister of my third great-grandfather, also named Philippe Schmidt. I’m not sure of the reason for the different surname spellings. Christine was born 6 August 1814 in Butten, Alsace, France, and her marriage to Chrétien took place in Ottwiller, Alsace.

Ottwiller Town Hall (from Wikipedia)

This is another family member where I’m lacking in other details concerning her life. I do, however, have an image of her marriage record from the Bas-Rhin civil marriage register. Here both surnames are listed as Schmidt. Christine’s birth record is the one where her surname is listed as Schmitt (as is that of her father). So many questions – were the Schmidts/Schmitts related? Are these spelling mistakes or two different surnames? Or (as my nephew suggests), was it a joke? More investigation is obviously in order.

Marriage Record, Chrétien and Christine Schmidt*
Birth Record, Christine Schmitt

*This Register, intended for the registration of MARRIAGE ACTS of the Municipality in Ottwiller containing four sheets, including the first and last, has been, by us President of the Court of First Instance of the district, marked and initialed, in accordance with article XLI of the Civil Code. Done at Saverne, on 3 December 1838.

Six Greats: The Birth of Maria Hassler

Six Greats: The Birth of Maria Hassler

Posted on by spuddled

Today we celebrate a birthday – that of my six-times-great-grandmother, Maria Hassler. She was born on 19 May 1718 in Schwand, Bavaria. She was the daughter of Stephan and Maria (Roser) Hassler, both of whom were also born in Schwand. She married Mathias Bollschweiler, and the couple had a daughter, Catharina, born 28 November 1748 in Bürchau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Catharina would marry Johann George Demler; their son, Johannes Demler, had a son, Johan Demler, and that Johan was the father of Mary Demler, who married Samuel Slagel and gave birth to my great-grandmother Emma Alice Slagel.

Schwand, Bavaria
Image from Wikipedia

The information I have on Maria in my database is limited, showing just the one child and going back only to her parents’ generation. My records show she died on 2 June 1791, only 11 days after her husband’s death. I thought that was going to be all I had to share on Maria in this post, but after taking a quick look on FamilySearch this evening to find an image to include here and coming up with the birth record below, I idly clicked on a related FamilySearch link…and found a family tree for Maria going back another six generations. I have no idea yet how reliable this trove of new information may be and will need to conduct further investigation to confirm its accuracy, so I’m tamping down on my excitement…for now.

Maria Hassler birth record
“Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS43-69QC-5?cc=3015626 : 22 February 2019), Records extracted and images digitized by Ancestry.com. German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.
Marie from Mackwiller: The Death of Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann

Marie from Mackwiller: The Death of Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann

Posted on by spuddled

On this day we remember Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann, my third great-grandaunt, who died 169 years ago today. She was born on 10 October 1793 in Mackwiller, Alsace, the daughter of Jean Pierre and Caroline (Bach) Hoffmann. As of 2021 Mackwiller had a population of 539. Marie was the eldest of at least eight children: sisters Caroline, Christine, Catherine, and Marguerite, and brothers Nicolas (father of our Jacob Hoffmann), Peter (who died at age 1), and Pierre.

I don’t know a lot of details about Marie’s life; the information I do have comes from the various records of the Bas-Rhin region of Alsace. It appears that around 30 June 1819, Marie gave birth to a son, listed in civil records as Jacques Hoffmann. Jacques lived only three months and 9 days, dying on 9 October 1819. On Jacques’s death record, where the name of his father would ordinarily be listed, it states instead (in French) “the name of his father is unknown to us.”

Nonetheless, some seven years later, Marie was married, to Jean Chrétien Friedrich, eight years her junior. They were married in Mackwiller on 4 February 1826. On 2 August of that year they had a son George, and in 1828 they had a daughter Catherine. The family appears in the 1836 and 1841 censuses for Mackwiller. Both husband and wife are listed under their middle names and as Protestants. There are records from August 1831 of a daughter Catherine born to Chrétien and Marie Elisabeth (Hoffmann) Friederich, so it is possible the first Catherine died young and a second daughter was named after the first.

Marriage Record of Chrétien Friederich and Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann

In 1850 George (or Georges) married Henriette Rose, 29 years old. Then on 28 April 1855 in Mackwiller, Marie Elisabeth died, aged 61. In August 1856, her widower died, in Mackwiller as well. As I mentioned, there are a lot of gaps in the family’s history, which means more investigation is needed. A genealogist’s work is never done. Yay!

Death Record of Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann
A Respite from Tragedy: The Long(ish) Life of Maria Asal

A Respite from Tragedy: The Long(ish) Life of Maria Asal

Posted on by spuddled

This week’s post brings a much-needed break from the tragic and gruesome stories we’ve uncovered of late. It’s still the anniversary of a death, but I don’t know any heartbreaking details this time around, and our subject lived to the age of 83. Unfortunately, I don’t know a lot of any kind of details other than birth, marriage, and death dates, so I’m going to give you those.

Maria Asal was my eighth great-grandmother. She was born 22 March 1646 in Neuenweg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, to Christian and Barbara (Sick) Asal. She married Hans Vollmer, who was born 29 November 1636 in Bürchau, Baden-Württemberg, and the couple had a daughter, Catharina Volmer (I’m not sure where the second “l” went) on 21 December 1681 in Bürchau. Additional details regarding Maria’s life are slim; her husband Hans died on 28 April 1717, and she died 295 years ago today, on 7 April 1729, both in Bürchau.

Their daughter Catharina married Johannes Bollschweiler, and they had a son named Mathias, who was born 30 August 1715 in Neuenweg. He married Maria Hassler, and they had a daughter named Catharina, born 28 November 1748 in Bürchau. This Catharina married Johann George Demler, and they had a son named Johannes Demler. He was born 24 November 1780 in Niedereggenen, Baden-Württemberg. On 1 September 1811, also in Niedereggenen, Johannes married Anna Maria Raz, and they had a son, Johan Demler. He was born 22 September 1816 in Niedereggenen and there he married Catherina Maria “Kate” Reser on 28 January 1845. This couple had three children: Wilhelm K., August Frederick, and Maria or Mary. Mary was born 17 January 1855 in Baden, and she, along with her brothers and parents, emigrated to America in December 1864. By 1867 or so the family was in Livingston County, Illinois. She would go on to marry Samuel Slagel, and their daughter Emma was my great-grandmother, marrying Paul Hoffmann, Sr., in 1902.

And to think I once believed I wouldn’t be able to trace my maternal side many generations back…

FamilySearch records:
Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1971
Sister Wives (Not Concurrent): Lydia Hoffmann Swing

Sister Wives (Not Concurrent): Lydia Hoffmann Swing

Posted on by spuddled

Today we commemorate the birthday of Lydia Hoffmann, born 25 February 1877 in Renaucourt, France. She was the second child of Jacob Hoffmann and his second wife, Christine Schmidt, making her the half-sister of my great-great-grandmother Catherine Hoffmann and the full sister of my great-grandfather, Paul Hoffmann. Catherine’s granddaughter, Velma, married Paul’s son, Joseph, and those were my maternal grandparents. Yes, I know. I’m my own grandpa.

But back to Lydia. The Archives du Bas-Rhin include her civil birth record, naming her as “Liti Hoffmann.” In 1883, when Lydia was 6, Jacob Hoffmann and (most) of his family moved from France to Fairbury, Illinois. Of particular importance to Lydia’s story was another traveler in the group, her half-sister Eugenie “Jennie” Hoffmann, born in 1865. She was the 7th child of Jacob and his first wife Anna Mayer.

Litie Hoffmann Birth Record

There aren’t many records available concerning Lydia’s girlhood. Her older full sister, Louise, died a year and a half after the family’s emigration, which must have been a sad loss to everyone. One assumes Lydia attended school and moved along with her parents from Fairbury to Strawn to Forrest to Fountain Creek.

Many of Lydia’s siblings and half-siblings married and started families of their own. One of these was the aforementioned “Jennie,” who married Joseph Gilbert Swing on 14 February 1890. Joseph was a widower when Jennie married him; he had married Anna Schaeppi in February 1886, and the two had two children, Walter and Anna. Joseph’s wife Anna died at age 26 in June 1888. After Joseph and Jennie’s 1890 marriage, they had four children of their own.

The 1900 census enumerates the Joseph Swing family on Elm Street in Fairbury: Joe Swing, born August 1861 in Germany, a hardware clerk; “Euginie,” his wife, born May 1865 in France; and five children, all born in Illinois: son Walter, born February 1886; son Joseph, born September 1892; daughter Mary, born January 1893; son Willie, born August 1897; and son Jacob, born April 1899.

I have yet to find the younger Anna Swing or Lydia Hoffmann in the 1900 census. And on 12 June, only a week after the census taker recorded Joseph and Jennie’s details, 35-year-old Jennie died. Her obituary notes that she died at home after only a few days’ illness.

“The deceased was a loving and affectionate wife and mother, a kind neighbor and a true friend.  The blow falls heavily upon the bereaved husband and motherless children and they have the sympathy of the entire community.”

Eugenie (Hoffmann) Swing Gravestone
Graceland Cemetery, Fairbury, Illinois

At a distance of nearly 125 years, I’m not sure of the details of what happened next, but the outcome is not uncommon. Perhaps Lydia had been helping Joseph raise his motherless children? A little over a year after Jennie’s death, on 1 September 1901, Joseph and Lydia were married in Iroquois County, Illinois. He was 16 years her senior. Their marriage would last for the next 47 years and produce 11 children. The first, born in 1902 was named Eugenie and called Jennie, just like Lydia’s sister and Joseph’s second wife. This Jennie was followed by Elizabeth, born 1903; Harvey, born 1904; Christine, born 1907; Phillip, born 1908; Gilbert, born 1911; Carolyn, born 1913; Edna, born 1914; Inez, born 1916; Jesse, born 1917; and Ruth, born 1920. Phillip, Edna, and Ruth died young, but the others lived well into their golden years.

Joseph and Lydia were enumerated in Fairbury in the 1910 census; in Prairie City, Indiana, in 1920; in Starke County, Indiana, in 1930; and again in Prairie City in 1940. On 29 July 1948 Joseph died in La Crosse, Indiana at age 86. Lydia was enumerated in the 1950 census in La Crosse living with her “son” Walter (really her stepson, Joseph’s eldest child). Confusingly for the casual reader, Lydia’s “son” was 63 to her 73. Lydia lived another 7 years, dying of a myocardial infarction at age 80 on 21 September 1957 in Valparaiso, Indiana. Joseph and Lydia are buried together in Oak Grove Cemetery in La Crosse.

Lydia’s obituary mentions those loved ones who predeceased her, including her two daughters and a son, then lists her survivors as 7 sons and 7 daughters as well as 20 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. No mention is made of the fact that of the 14 surviving children, six were not her own biological children. One gets the feeling that perhaps in Litie’s mind there was no difference.

Joseph and Lydia (Hoffmann) Swing
Find a Grave Memorial

Branching Out: Fixing My Genealogical Mistakes

Posted on by spuddled

Nearly nine years ago (!) I published a blog post here about my Simmons brick wall. I talked about my great-great-grandmother Mary Ann Belinda Simmons‘s mysterious parentage, how I had discovered from the 1850 census that her unknown father had died and that her mother Rachel had remarried a Charles Clark, but that I was still trying to trace that branch back another generation.

In the intervening years I have broken down that brick wall and branched out further with my Simmons ancestry – but only after realizing how dangerous assumptions can be. Here is the 1850 census record where Belinda Simmons appears:

Simmons, Belinda. 1850 United States Federal Census; Dodson, Highland, Ohio. [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

The 1850 census does not identify the relationships among those in a given household (this question was not asked until the 1880 census), and censuses prior to 1850 list only the name of the head of household, so there wasn’t the option to find infants Belinda and Charles in 1840. What I had to go on was a household of adults and children with differing surnames, and for reasons which I no longer remember, I leapt to the conclusion that Belinda and Charles were the children of a remarried Rachel and her deceased Simmons husband.

Years later I happened to look again at Belinda’s Find a Grave memorial and found that a maternal link had been added – but to an Ann Simmons, not a Rachel Clark. My first inclination was to assume there was a mistake on the Find a Grave site, but I dug a little deeper and found additional records that disproved my earlier assumptions and led to a few new branches on the family tree.

Ann’s headstone, conveniently, lists her explicitly as “Consort of Samuel Simmons,” and shows that she died in April 1839 at the age of 21. I also found a marriage record1 for Charles Clark and Rachel Matthews dated November 29, 1844 in Hamilton County, Ohio. Thus it did seem that the parents of Belinda were Samuel Simmons and his deceased wife Ann, rather than Rachel and her deceased Simmons husband. But then who were Charles and Rachel (Matthews) Clark, in whose house Belinda and her brother Charles were living in 1850?

Ann Simmons Gravestone, Memorial ID 100946394, Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/100946394/ann-simmons.

None of the records I had found for Belinda named her parents, so I turned to Charles Simmons’s records instead. I found a death certificate2 for a Charles H. Simmons, born 26 April 1839 in Ohio who died of apoplexy on 6 September 1908 in Philadelphia. His parents, both born in Ohio, were Samuel R. Simmons and Mary A. Clark. So Mary A(nn) was also a Clark! Then finally I found a 30 July 1837 marriage record3 for a “Samuel B. Simmonds” and “Amil Clark,” further confirming this theory. According to Find a Grave and other sources, there also appears to have been a third Simmons child, Charles’s twin Samuel Benjamin, who was not living with Charles and Rachel in 1850. After this additional detective work, it seems plausible that upon Ann’s death, leaving three children under the age of two, her probable brother Charles and his wife Rachel took in their niece and nephew. I also noted Caleb and Mary Clark (ages 73 and 69) living next door to the family in 1850. It seems likely these could be the parents of Mary Ann and her brother Charles, and the grandparents of Belinda, Charles II, and Samuel.

More questions remain, of course. Various sources show Charles II’s birthdate as 26 April 1839 and Samuel’s as 24 April 1839. This would be strange enough, but especially when their mother’s headstone lists her date of death as 20 April 1839. There is obviously a discrepancy (or two) somewhere! My assumptions this time seem based on better evidence, but I still need further corroboration regarding all these connections. And then, as always in genealogy, the inevitable: can I trace this branch back even farther?

1 Marriage Record of Charles Clark and Rachel Matthews. Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
2 Death Certificate of Charles H. Simmons. Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1968 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data:Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1968. Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
3 Marriage Record of Samuel B. Simmonds and Amil Clark. Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data:Marriage Records. Ohio Marriages. Various Ohio County Courthouses.

Sympathy Saturday – Childbed Fever…Or Not

Posted on by agnette

It’s interesting how setting out to write a simple blog post can result in confusion and/or changes to the information I already  have on file. I searched my family tree data for “childbirth” for today’s post; after all, what could be more suitable for Sympathy Saturday than a death in childbirth? However, after latching on to Emily Jane Sweeney Fogle, my second cousin 5 times removed, it appears that though sympathy is called for – it cannot be targeted at death in childbirth.

Emily was born in 1821 in Liberty, Casey County, Kentucky, the daughter of Joel and Obedience (Edwards) Sweeney and great-granddaughter of Moses Sweeney. The second of eight children, she married William McDowell Fogle on 17 February 1841 in Casey County. Emily died, still in Liberty, Kentucky, on 14 October 1852. This much does match the information I already had on file from the Descendants of Moses Sweeney CD compiled by Harvey J. Sweeney. From there, though, a few facts begin to differ.

The Sweeney compilation indicates that Emily Jane was born 4 January 1821 and probably died in childbirth, and lists a total of six children of the couple, including an unnamed daughter who was born and died in Liberty in October 1852. The 1896 Kentucky Biographical Dictionary, as well as the image of Emily’s grave in Liberty’s Napier Cemetery from the Find-a-Grave website, however, however, indicates a birthdate of 4 June 1821. The story of the infant who died also appears to have come originally from the Kentucky Biographical Dictionary, which indicates Emily “was the mother of six children: Marietta, Isabelle, Sarah Frances, Jesse Edwin, William McDowell, and a daughter who died in infancy, a few days preceding the death of its mother.”

However, Ancestry.com has now digitized Kentucky Death Records from 1852-1953 (which incidentally also provided the catalyst for my investigation into the murder of Emily’s second cousin three times removed). Here we find Emily’s death listed, but the cause of death appears not as “childbed fever” (unlike two others on the same page) but as asthma. I thought perhaps somehow this was still a complication from childbirth, but the Kentucky Death Records don’t indicate any other Fogle child who was born around October 1852 and died then or later. So it seems possible the Biographical Dictionary, written some forty years later, may have provided erroneous information. Two other interesting points are revealed by the Kentucky Death Records source – Emily’s occupation (after much scrutiny) appears to be listed as “Innstress,” and the Clerk of Casey County, whose name appears on the death notices, was none other than Emily’s own father, Joel Sweeney.

Surname Saturday – the Simmons Brick Wall

Posted on by agnette

Names are interesting. When I first started doing genealogy, I found it intriguing to realize how many surnames you “own” in your family tree. Sometimes the surnames become more and more familiar over time as more relatives are uncovered and researched.  Other times the connection to a surname is more tenuous – a link of one maternal ancestor, and then the proverbial brick wall.

My great-great-grandmother Belinda Simmons is one of these tenuous links.  Born May 14, 1838 in Cincinnati, she married John Montgomery on Christmas Day 1858 in Ohio. John and Belinda appear in the 1860 (Clark, Ohio) and 1870-1880 (Denver Township, Illinois) censuses with their growing family. Belinda died on Valentine’s Day 1908 and is buried in Pleasant View Cemetery in Olney, Illinois (in a grave my family and I failed to find on a field trip to Olney).

Belinda’s parentage, however, remains a mystery, as does her name itself.  Sources list her name variously as Malinda, Mary Ann, Mary Ann Belinda, Mary B., and Belinda. After much searching I did finally locate Belinda in the 1850 census, aged 12. The discovery, however, only provided half the story: apparently sometime before 1850 Belinda’s father had died, and her mother (Rachel – the half of the story the census revealed) had remarried a Charles Clark. Also in the household is Belinda’s younger brother Charles H. Simmons, aged 10. If Belinda had been born a little later, it might be easy enough to find a Rachel Simmons and her young children in an earlier census – but since census records prior to 1850 don’t list each individual in the household by name, it is trickier to confirm the identities of family members – especially when the head of household’s name remains unknown.

So…the search back in time continues…

John and Mary Montgomery Tombstone from Find-a-Grave