Historians have had trouble keeping track of some members of Congress: not the live ones, but those who've shuffled off to that great caucus room in the sky.
Assistant Senate historian Betty Koed says it's the burial places that often leave her stumped.
"We have a few members that we think were buried in one place, but they had been disinterred at some point and the body was lost," Koed said, "and we don't know where they are now." [Link]Maybe she should look for them in the voter rolls from the 2004 election.
Koed teamed up with Andrew Dodge to edit The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005, now available online. Poke around and you might find an Alabama congressman whose demise near Denver was attributed to "wild beasts," or a Michigan representative who fell in a harbor while visiting Panama. Both, oddly enough, were traveling with Vice President Dick Cheney.
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