Update of November 29, 2022 - Due to problems with not getting my findagrave notifications for several months, I have created a new e-mail account to use for findagrave only. If you want to write me directly, you can also use my regular e-mail [email protected]
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Pictured here is my dear little black cat, Gibbs Jethro. In September 2010, my husband was driving home from work on a busy street, and he saw a car pull over to the curb, and a person threw something out the window. My husband thought it looked like a black kitten, and sure enough, when he stopped to check, it was. He brought tiny little Gibbs home in his jacket pocket, and fortunately the vet was still open to have him checked out. We have been very blessed to have Gibbs in our home, and I also call him my Little Sunshine Boy because of his sunny disposition. And yes, I do realize that Gibbs' name is the reverse of his namesake's name!
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Update of September 2023: My husband and I have been doing restoration work at Round Point Cemetery here in Wapello County since the summer of 1997. This summer, it came to our attention that some additional repair work needed done, and we have been working on it, with plans to continue next summer. During the 26 years we have worked at Round Point, I have been working on a pictorial documentation of the old part of the cemetery, including details of the work we have done on the gravestones there. I am in the process of completing it, and as I am doing so, I am sending edits on the findagrave memorials that have gravestones to include their locations, and in some cases, information on research I have done on people buried there. Since I joined findagrave, I have also made sure that every grave in Round Point that has a gravestone has a picture of it on their findagrave memorial, either taken by myself or someone else. So, if you suddenly find yourself with a lot of edits from me on Round Point memorials, now you know why!
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I was born and raised in Ottumwa, Iowa, and I have lived here all my life. On October 12, 2015, I accepted management of several thousand memorials in Shaul Cemetery here in Ottumwa. I would like to thank my findagrave friend cemgems, who originally created these memorials. Cemgems spent several months entering Shaul Cemetery's database into findgrave and also made two cross-country trips to photograph gravestones in Shaul, in an effort to help others find their family members' graves.

I have updated these memorials as time permits, using information available both on the internet and in our local resources here in Wapello County. I would also like to thank my friend Bill Haseltine , who has researched and helped me update several hundred memorials since January 2016.

As of August 13, 2022, after almost seven years of working on these memorials, I have completed updating them. I have added in hundreds of transcribed obituaries and also found parents and siblings if possible. If I have missed any, please let me know, as it was not intentional.

If you are a findagrave member, and you have edit suggestions, please send them through the regular findagrave edit system. If you have not provided a way to get in touch with you to discuss a discrepancy I might have with your edit suggestion, please understand if I don't feel I can accept it. I will provide the best explanation I can in the space provided if this happens.

If you are not a findagrave member, and you have questions about or information on any of the memorials that are for your family members, feel free to let me know. If you contact me by e-mail, please include a link to the memorial you are writing about.

Also, keep in mind that a person's last known address on their Social Security Death Record may not be where they died. Many people who lived in Ottumwa died in Des Moines, Iowa City, or VA Hospitals around the state. Also, many of them went to stay with their children in another state during their last illness and died there. I will research the places of death when I receive edit notices to verify what is correct, as I know everyone wants accurate information.

For those who might still be reading this, I would like to mention another helpful hint: If you believe that someone died between census years because a husband or wife stated that they were a widow or widower on the next census, that does not necessarily mean that was the case. I have found that years ago, many divorced people gave their marital status as widow or widower rather than state they were divorced. I have spent hours looking for people who allegedly died and found that they actually had remarried and still lived here or had moved away. I imagine at the time it was easier just to tell the census taker that their spouse had died, as it probably didn't seem like it really mattered. Who would have guessed that 100 years later, there would be such a thing as an internet where their records would be available for all to see, and descendants would be frantically searching for a spouse that had not passed on yet!

Update of November 29, 2022 - Due to problems with not getting my findagrave notifications for several months, I have created a new e-mail account to use for findagrave only. If you want to write me directly, you can also use my regular e-mail [email protected]
---------------
Pictured here is my dear little black cat, Gibbs Jethro. In September 2010, my husband was driving home from work on a busy street, and he saw a car pull over to the curb, and a person threw something out the window. My husband thought it looked like a black kitten, and sure enough, when he stopped to check, it was. He brought tiny little Gibbs home in his jacket pocket, and fortunately the vet was still open to have him checked out. We have been very blessed to have Gibbs in our home, and I also call him my Little Sunshine Boy because of his sunny disposition. And yes, I do realize that Gibbs' name is the reverse of his namesake's name!
---------------
Update of September 2023: My husband and I have been doing restoration work at Round Point Cemetery here in Wapello County since the summer of 1997. This summer, it came to our attention that some additional repair work needed done, and we have been working on it, with plans to continue next summer. During the 26 years we have worked at Round Point, I have been working on a pictorial documentation of the old part of the cemetery, including details of the work we have done on the gravestones there. I am in the process of completing it, and as I am doing so, I am sending edits on the findagrave memorials that have gravestones to include their locations, and in some cases, information on research I have done on people buried there. Since I joined findagrave, I have also made sure that every grave in Round Point that has a gravestone has a picture of it on their findagrave memorial, either taken by myself or someone else. So, if you suddenly find yourself with a lot of edits from me on Round Point memorials, now you know why!
---------------
I was born and raised in Ottumwa, Iowa, and I have lived here all my life. On October 12, 2015, I accepted management of several thousand memorials in Shaul Cemetery here in Ottumwa. I would like to thank my findagrave friend cemgems, who originally created these memorials. Cemgems spent several months entering Shaul Cemetery's database into findgrave and also made two cross-country trips to photograph gravestones in Shaul, in an effort to help others find their family members' graves.

I have updated these memorials as time permits, using information available both on the internet and in our local resources here in Wapello County. I would also like to thank my friend Bill Haseltine , who has researched and helped me update several hundred memorials since January 2016.

As of August 13, 2022, after almost seven years of working on these memorials, I have completed updating them. I have added in hundreds of transcribed obituaries and also found parents and siblings if possible. If I have missed any, please let me know, as it was not intentional.

If you are a findagrave member, and you have edit suggestions, please send them through the regular findagrave edit system. If you have not provided a way to get in touch with you to discuss a discrepancy I might have with your edit suggestion, please understand if I don't feel I can accept it. I will provide the best explanation I can in the space provided if this happens.

If you are not a findagrave member, and you have questions about or information on any of the memorials that are for your family members, feel free to let me know. If you contact me by e-mail, please include a link to the memorial you are writing about.

Also, keep in mind that a person's last known address on their Social Security Death Record may not be where they died. Many people who lived in Ottumwa died in Des Moines, Iowa City, or VA Hospitals around the state. Also, many of them went to stay with their children in another state during their last illness and died there. I will research the places of death when I receive edit notices to verify what is correct, as I know everyone wants accurate information.

For those who might still be reading this, I would like to mention another helpful hint: If you believe that someone died between census years because a husband or wife stated that they were a widow or widower on the next census, that does not necessarily mean that was the case. I have found that years ago, many divorced people gave their marital status as widow or widower rather than state they were divorced. I have spent hours looking for people who allegedly died and found that they actually had remarried and still lived here or had moved away. I imagine at the time it was easier just to tell the census taker that their spouse had died, as it probably didn't seem like it really mattered. Who would have guessed that 100 years later, there would be such a thing as an internet where their records would be available for all to see, and descendants would be frantically searching for a spouse that had not passed on yet!