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Follow the above coordinates to a small parking area beside a tiny Colonial cemetery tucked into the woods on Flint Road in Hillsborough. Decode the puzzle to find a cache filled with small toys. PLEASE NOTE: cache may be hard to access in deep snow! Please do not disturb any of the stones, marked or unmarked, in your quest.
This lovely stone-walled cemetery contains 19 stones, with the Monroe family taking the large part of those. To find the cache, you will need to become intimately acquainted with all the residents of this cemetery, and you will need to use close observation of dates and relationships, as well as thoughtful assumptions about parentage, to fill in the coordinates of the cache, located somewhere nearby. We recommend you bring along a pencil, scratch paper, a calculator, and a snack, for this could take some time. But if you enjoy old family history, then you'll love every second you spend with these folks.
We do not pretend to know anything about these people other than what little information is presented on the stones in the cemetery, except for the fact that Hiram Monroe was an attorney and a NH State Senator for the 8th District from 1849-51. If you have information you'd like to share about the Monroes, Colbys, Hartwells, or Campbells, please email us and we will include it here with your name, if you wish.
Since we're not trying for historical accuracy, but rather a thoughtful journey to a cache, all questions must be answered using only the information contained within these stone walls. In other words, if you know something that the stones don't reflect, discount it for this puzzle. We have spent a great deal of time figuring dates and trying to make parental connections in particular, and although no one can ever know without the family history book, let's assume (given the time period, especially) that all social customs were observed; ie, no one remarried without first holding a suitable mourning period for the deceased spouse, and no children were conceived out of wedlock.
Math calculations to figure dates of birth and age differences can be made in two different ways, since many stones offer to-the-day details of the person's age, and many do not, leaving you to roughly guess at their birth year. For the sake of the puzzle, we have chosen to use ONLY the whole year of age and the year the person died, ignoring any additional months and dates offered on the stones. We understand that this will not yield truly factual birth years in every case, but trust us - after doing these figures for days to create this puzzle, you'll be happier that we let you off the hook.
One last note, and then you're off and running: there are two stones that you should NOT consider for the puzzle, as they are so hard to read we decided they couldn't be used. One is Hiram's fourth (and final) wife, whose stone is resting against the wall about ten paces to the left of the gate as you enter; the other is a tiny baby's marker at the foot of the Colby plot.
Now go find the cache!
N 43.AB.CDE
W 71.FG.HIJ
A. How many of Hiram Monroe's granddaughters lived past the age of 2?
B. How old was Lavina when her first stepmother died?
C. How many of the wives buried here were outlived by their husbands?
D. Simon Hartwell holds the honor of being the firstborn among all the residents of this cemetery, with a birth year of 1783. He is closely followed by his wife Abigail, who was born roughly 5 years later. Let's call them #1 and #2 respectively. Using this "who's next" sequence, find the difference between the birth years of #3 and #5.
E. Among the Colbys, Campbells and Hartwells ONLY, how many were born before Zeruah P?
F. How many men in this cemetery have wives buried here as well?
G. It appears that each of Hiram's first three wives bore him children. How many (total) were born to Eliza and Ruth?
H. The 1860s saw the deaths of many residents of this cemetery. How many, to be exact?
I. How many children did Hiram's first wife Juliana bear?
J. How many of these folks were alive in 1812?
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx gb gur gvgyr sbe gur nafjre.