An Infant with an Odd Name

Photo courtesy of Karen (Trumbauer) Finley

Has anyone tried to identify an individual based on a first name only? This can be quite the challenge! In the specific incident I am speaking of, it took probably 15 years to definitively come to a conclusion. The more fine-tuned research was closer to four years. In any case, it wasn’t the time span as much as the time spent on the specific project, which is usually the case.

The initial resource used for this case was a headstone in the local cemetery. It is a marble tablet market circa 1865. Upon first inspection, you would see “Our little ELTE. Absent, but Not Forgotten”. No dates appear on the stone, no last name, nothing. The marker is a decorative one, with ELTE set in a different font and style, as well as pits adorning the outer edge of the stone, as if to say, “This little child deserves to have some decoration on her stone.” Strangely Elte does not appear as a name on any list or any online searches for that matter. The only reference found to “Elte” is a river in Germany.

Unbeknownst to visitors, the portion of the stone buried below the ground holds more details. The simple letters L. T. G. The last initial does not match those buried on adjacent lots. In actuality, the stone is in the alleyway and has been associated with different lots from time to time, such as when the WPA walked the cemetery in the 1930s.

Another clue arises from a cemetery map that shows the letters L. G. T. on the grave another block further south. These letters appear to perhaps denote the purchase of a single grave. This location is the burial place for the infant daughter of Griswold, dying in 1865.

If that child is a Griswold, then the initials on the map should end in G. The magic happens when we put the letters L. T. together. L. T. is Elte! Now why cause this confusion on a headstone? Mourning the death of an infant child was in many cases a disassociation to minimize distress. Parents would often linger on choosing a name for the child in fear of losing a more personable identity. Whether or not a name selection was made and whether L. T. stood for an exact first name and middle name, it appears that L. T. could be, and still is Elte into eternity.