The Camera's Eye

Now that things have settled down somewhat from my trip to Gettysburg a few weeks ago, I thought I would go back and talk a little about some of the ghost stories surrounding the area that the "ghost hunt" took us on. As I mentioned in the previous post we were taken out to an area called "The Grove" which is on the edge of East Cemetery Hill where much of the fighting on the second day took place. One of the units fighting that day were the Louisiana Fighting Tigers. These rough and tough men were not just your ordinary solider, but were made up of the worst of the worst. Most of the men were murders or worst and had been serving time in prison when the war broke out and were promised their freedom if they fought. You can only imagine the surprise on the Union troops when they came rushing at them out of the woods that day not only rifles but hammers, rocks, sticks, knives and bare fist. The union army struck back with anything they could find and the woods were full of dead and injured men when it was over. Like much of Gettysburg men were buried where they laid in temporary graves, until months and even years later they were removed and placed in cemeteries.
Fast forward to modern times: A new middle school is built along side the battlefield. Where the stadium now stands we know that several bodies had been buried. It was along this area that my blog friend Linda and her daughter Amanda, and Amanda's friend Darci, my husband and myself explored. With Linda's permission I am posting the photos that she captured that night

This strange mist showed up in one of the first photos. No one was smoking, it was not cold enough to see your breath, and nothing we can explain made this mist. We did not see it with our eyes. Only with the camera.

The next few photos are of orbs in the area.
Now I know a lot of people don't believe an orb is anything but dust, and yes some of this might be dust, but I do believe some of these are true orbs because they seem to hold there own light

See the orb at the top

This one is near the wall

Some of the stories of haunting of this area include woman being pinched..sounds of gun fire, smells of tobacco,

Here are some photos from my previous visits to the same area

Is this dust in every photo? Or could it be the energy of lost souls, still haunting the grounds of Gettysburg...
You decide

Highway Happening

I had the strangest thing happen to me last night. I was traveling home from my mom's house (about a 40 minute trip). My husband was driving and I was fully awake. We had been talking just moments before.
My husband's driving makes me a bit nervous sometimes so I was paying close attention to the road.
My husband was safely changing lanes and I glanced in the direction of the lane to our left that he was about to change too. For a split second I swear someone was in the middle of the lane. It caught me by such surprise that I actually gasp for breath. It only lasted for a second, but I swear I could see legs. It was as if they jumped out of the way, but no one was really there.
In the next second we were in the lane and I could see long skid marks where at some point someone had applied there breaks.
I couldn't help but wonder if there had been an accident of some kind at this point in the road.
Do you think I really saw something? Of was it the over active imagination of a long day?

Guess What

Guess where I am going on Oct. 10 ? You got it. I am heading back to Gettysburg PA. for a few days, and you know what that means..MORE GHOST STORIES

Stay tuned.

News Letter

I am a big fan of the news letter I get each week from Paranormal.About.Com. It is filled with all sorts of information from ghost to the loch nest monster. This week it talks about signs of a haunting and how to tell if your house has activity. You can check it outHERE

Happy reading

P.S.
Make sure you check out the photo gallery under readers photos. My photo from the Jenny Wade house in Gettysburg is there. (Sept. 08)

Photo

I've been meaning to post this photo. I purchased it when I was in Gettysburg last May. I saw it on my first trip up there last Sept. as a painting. It was beautifully haunting and I couldn't stop thinking of it. This past trip it was available in a photo and I snatched it up. I've changed the mat to black, and it is now in a place of honor in my house.

If I am not mistaken the photo/painting is titled The Widow. I find it somehow romantic that the gentleman (ghost) is standing next to his beloved as she morns for him.

Book Surprise

got a nice surprise in the mail this week. An advance copy of this book.


I first heard of Author Beth Brown a little over a year ago when I was browsing in my local book store. Her book Haunted Battlefields: Virginia's Civil War Ghost, caught my eye.
Along with being an author Beth is the founder of a group called "Virginia Society of Paranormal Education and Research (VASPER)".

Now you all know how much I love my ghost, so I of course I contacted Beth to let her know how much I enjoyed the Battlefield book.. She wrote me back and mentioned that her group had just done an investigation at Berkley Plantation in Charles City VA. a few weeks prior. I was very excited at hearing this because it turns out that the weekend after her group had been there my husband and I had been for a visit.

While there that day I had asked the tour guide to tell me about the ghost stories I had already head about the plantation. The guide then mentioned that a group out of Richmond had just come down for an investigation. I started putting two and two together and realized that was the same group that Beth was in. What a small world!

Since then I have been following Beth via her web page A few months ago I found out that she has a new book coming out called "Haunted Plantations Of Virginia"

Several weeks ago Beth had a contest asking her fans to write a review on Amazon.com about the Haunted Battlefields book. In turn she would enter your name into a contest for a chance to win An advanced autographed copy prior to the public release of her new book Haunted Plantations. I was really excited when I found out I had won!!

The book came in the mail yesterday and here is what I found out from Beth..
I am the first person (besides her editor, publisher, and herself) that's seen the book. They just arrived at the publisher's warehouse today.

I am so honored to have the first copy. I have been reading on and off all day (I had to work), and I am almost finished. I can't put it down! Of course the first thing I did was turn to the chapter on Berkley Plantation. I won't spoil the book by reveling to you exactly what happened there but I will tell you that the place is haunted!

I am not sure how many book stores across the U.S. will carry the book, but you can order a copy via Amazon.com.
I highly recommend the book for anyone who loves these type of stories and especially if you plan on being in or live in Virginia.

The book has already inspired me to take a couple of road trips. I have to check out some of the homes she has listed and of course you know what that means..I will share my adventures with all of you! Until then

Happy Haunting....

Mist In The Hall

One of my co-workers Who for the sake of her privacy we will call Betty is a huge fan of ghostly things like myself, and when I arrived at work today she called me aside to tell me what had happened to her sister this week. I forget her sisters name but for the sake of this blog we will call her Linda. Linda's mother in law (Whom she did not get along with) passed away four days ago. Last night Linda was laying in bed and suddenly got very cold. She looked out into the hallway where she saw a mist. Thinking it was smoke she sat up and took a second look. The mist was growing thicker, and the room colder. All at once the mist took on a human shape and started to come into the room. Linda Yelled out, NO I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU...And snapped on the light. As she did the last of the mist disappeared and the room grew warm. Linda said she knows it was the mother in law.
Both the girls (Linda and Betty) grew up in a haunted house and both have had these type of experiences before. Betty said she told Linda to set up a video camera tonight and see what happens. I told her to also make sure she has her regular camera close by...Freaky huh

Updating

I just wanted to let everyone know this blog is temporarily on hold. I will be updating it from time to time, but honestly don't have anything lined up right now in the way of places to visit that have a reputation for being haunted. I am going to Gettysburg PA in May, and hopefully will post something before then, but if not you can be sure that I will be back with some stories to tell from there.

Ghost Photo

Remeber the photo I told everyone about of the "boy" on the bed in the mirror at the Jenny Wade house? I haven't realeased the photo publicly yet because I have it in a photo contest that ends on Dec. 1....

This is what the contest had to say about it.
Keep your fingers crosses that it will be good enough to win...
After the contest is over I will be submitting the photo to several paranormal sites to see what they think..




Thank you for the photo. After carefully reviewing we agree that there appears to be something in the mirror that doesn't belong there. I can't say with certainty that it is an image on the bed but it certainly is interesting

xxxxxxxxxx

Ghostly Images of Gettysburg

Ghost Hunt

The next few days should prove to be exciting. Coming up on Saturday night I am going on a ghost hunt with a local paranormal group to a cemetery. Then next Tuesday I will be meeting with the group I told you about a few weeks ago that is interested in spending some time with my grandson. We will be meeting at the farm where he first "saw" the ghost lady I have in my photo. The group wants to spend some time with him. I am guessing that they will set up some equipment in the area and see if anything happens. Both trips should provide some interesting post, so check back for them. In the mean time here is a slide show from The Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond VA. (This is NOT the same cemetery that I will be going on with the group this weekend). I know I showed a few photos from there in a previous post, but with approx. 75,000 people buried there I thought you might like to see more.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Haunting We Will Go

Ok, So you know how I've been talking about all these haunted buildings in Colonial Williamsburg? Well guess what? I am finally going to get a chance to get inside some of them!!
Yep it's true. Come this Thursday night at 8:30 yours truly along with my brave daughter who I drag everywhere (when hubby doesn't go) and I are going on the Legends, Ghosts, Mysteries, and Myths tour (for some reason that sounds like it should be a Beatles song). Anyway I am sure it will be lame, and I will probably come back disappointed, but hey it is only $12.00 for the ticket so I thought what the heck.
Just to buy a day pass to go up there is something like $40.00 so this is cheap entertainment. I think there are several "ghost" tours up there but this is the only one that you can go into the building. So cross your fingers that there will be activity that night (There are reports that people do see things on these tours).
I have my camera ready and I will be reporting back to you on the evening ASAP.
In the mean time enjoy some more of my stories.

Chit Chat

Well it seems my little Ghost Photo is making it's way around the web. Not only has it been published by two other sites. I now have a professional paranormal photographer taking a look at it. I wrote him a letter and asked if he was interested in viewing a photo and he wrote back this morning and said yes, so it is on the way to him.
Here is his website if you want to check out his other stuff
The Ghost Guy
I'm excited that the photo is getting recognized, because to me it validates that what happened is real and not just the imagination of my grandson.

I want to do some more investigation of the farm and graves, but now with it being summer a lot of people visit the farm, and it will be hard to be alone at the graves and woods near them.
I am going to try getting up really early one morning or either go just before closing one night. I will go during the week and see if that will work out to take some EVP's. It will probably be another week or so before I get to go alone. We are going next week for my grandson's birthday party, but more than likely won't visit the graves that day.

In the mean time I still plan on attending the meeting I have been invited to with one of our local paranormal groups. Hopefully they will decide to do another investigation out there and I can wiggle out an invitation to tag along.

Also I also got a very nice email from Haunted San Diego They have been by this blog and wanted to let me know they had visited. Way cool huh.
Here is some information on them.
Haunted San Diego is an informational web site about ghosts, the paranormal and supernatural. It is not a tour group or paranormal research group. They run a website where people can share stories and have a forum and stuff. Also photo's can be submitted there so I will probably send the photo and story to them.
It's amazing when you start looking around just how many people are interested in the paranormal. I love it. I wish I had started this interest 20 years ago. Just think of all the stuff I have missed out on. Oh well, I am into it now. So look out world!(Spirit World that is)

Something to look forward to

It will take me awhile, but I have decided as part of this blog to include The Ghost of Williamsburg.
What I would like to do is go to each of the houses/areas, that are listed as "haunted" in Colonial Williamsburg. I plan on taking a photo and telling a little bit of the history or story of why the place is haunted. I think that will be fun and hopefully you my readers will enjoy the stories as well as learn about our local history.

Also just so you know. I have been invited to go to a meeting of one of our local paranormal groups as a guest speaker. I will be talking about my grandson and how he "sees" the Ghost Lady and other happenings he seems to talk about.
It isn't coming up for a few weeks, but I will be sure and mention how the evening goes.
Probably sometime tomorrow I will make a list of the Williamsburg Ghost stories and post some information.

He sees dead people

Does anyone have the number for ghost busters? Seriously I think we might need one.
Do you all remember the photos of the lady in the woods, and how my grandson said he saw her? Well, it seems lately that he is "seeing" other spirits. My daughter took him back to the farm over the weekend and when he got to the area where the graves are he started talking about "the lady" She said he became quite excited pointing to different areas where he was seeing her when they would asked him about her.
Later that evening, he came over to my house and I asked him if he had fun seeing the cows. Yes, he said. and the lady. I said oh you saw the lady again. Unn huh he said. Did she talk to you this time I asked. Yes, he said, What did she say I asked..
He told me she liked the water. This didn't surprise me since every time he has "seen" her it has been near the lake there. After a few seconds he added...
She lived a long time ago.
Ok, now this is getting creepy, so being the type of person I am I started searching for more history of this farm. I emailed the farm via there website and enclosed the photos. I only told them that I captured something in the photos and did not tell them about my grandson. What a surprise I got when I received a response from a lady that works there telling me that she is the founder of a local paranormal group.
I immediately emailed her back telling her everything. I haven't heard back from her yet, but I was off today so I took a little trip out to the farm. I recently purchased a digital voice recorder, and went with the intent of trying to pick up some EVP (Much to my disappointment they were closed. The office however was open.so being the brave little ghost hunter that I am I went in and asked for the lady who I was emailing. She wasn't there, but I went ahead and told them my story, showing them the printed photos and ask if I could go out to the graves. I took several photos, but nothing showed up. I really didn't expect it to. However it makes me wonder. Was the first photo a fluke, or do you think the lady simply did not manifest because my grandson was not with me. Is he a conductor somehow? I haven't evaluated the recordings I did yet. I have a special program on my computer that wipes out the excess noise, and my husband knows how to use it. He will be home in a couple of hours so if anything shows up on tape I will post it here.

I have another ghost story that has happened in the last few days but I am saving it. I will post about it soon,.

To answer a question

Suzie ask me an interesting question about our "ghost". Did I want them to stay or go.

I thought Well, as long as they stay on the farm and not follow me or my daughter home. I think they should stay, after all this was there farm for hundreds of years. At this point I don't feel like they are harming anyone. This is after all a children's farm, run by the city and if bad things are not happening there then I think it is ok for them to hang around.

I can't help but wonder though if other kids have seen things and told there parents and no one has come forward and reported it for fear of being laughed at or worst.
Let's face it even in today's society where this type of thing is more widely accepted people still band you as a kook. As for me. I don't care. I say bring it on. I would love to have a full investigation out there. Get your camera's, voice recorders, heat sensors and all the other equipment. Whoo hoo, can you see us now on Taps
Ok back to the serious side.
Suzie also suggested that I talk some more to our friendly ghost asking them to give me some sort of sign as to who they are by making a noise such as a tap. Only problem is this is woods and open field. So short of dropping a tree branch on my head I am not sure what kind of noise they could make. In fact I have been twice with a EPV recorder but so far nothing more than the wind. I do plan on trying agin

In the mean time I am going to do an investigation of a different sorts this weekend.
It has nothing to do with this man and lady and is on an entirely different piece of land.
I will tell you more about it later

Re-Post

I am re posting this photo(be sure and click on it to enlarge so you can see it better) because I need another opinion. Remember when I asked if anyone else could see the lady and several of you did? Well, I want you to take a closer look..Can you see the man in front of her bent on one knee? Do you think he proposed to her in that spot and that is why they have reappeared there?
Maybe I have a really overly active imagination, but I swear I didn't notice him until the other day. I saw her clearly, and the more I looked at it trying to find an explaination (other than my imagination) I suddendly realized he was there..
So do you see him?

UPDATE
Here is the same photo with a red arrow pointing to what I think looks like the back of a mans shoulders I posted this as a visual aide..Let me know what you think

Sunday Ramblings

BE SURE AND CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM TO SEE THE IMAGINE




Ok tell me I am crazy, but do you see the ghost in the forest?
Here is a close up view.

 

Like I said maybe I am crazy, but I see a ghostly outline of a lady in a long dress facing sideways with her arm on her hip.
Just so you know...I took this photo today right after my grandson told me he saw a lady in the woods. He told me this about three minutes after we stopped here today.

The woods were behind us as I took the photo of the graves. We were not talking about ghost. We were simply looking around. Just out of no-where my grandson pointed to the woods and told us he wanted to go in there. My daughter asked him if someone was in there..Yes he answered, Who we asked. A lady he replied. Where did she come from we asked..He pointed to the sky. I ask him if it was a ghost. Yes, he said. Needless to say we left. This is not the first time we have been near graveyards to have my grandson suddenly started talking about seeing people that we can't see. I have to admit even with my belief in the paranormal I find it a bit un-nerving. When we got home and I loaded my photos from today the image of the woman was the first thing I saw in the photo. I quietly sat my grandson on my lap and asked him where he saw the lady in the woods at. He pointed right to the same area of the photo that I was seeing the "ghost" in. Shit I thought, so I asked him, Cody what was the lady wearing. Did she have on a dress or pants. A dress he said..hmmm I thought, what color was her dress. Blue he said..Ohh ok I said..Well was the dress up here (pointing to my mid thighs) or was it down here (pointing to my shoes). Down here he said touching the ground..
Ok, now I ask you again. Am I nuts? Or do you see a ghost in my photo?