"Every time an old person dies, it's like a library burning down." –Alex Haley

*****************************

"At a cemetery, lives are commemorated, deaths are recorded, families are reunited, memories are made tangible and love is undisguised. Communities accord respect, families bestow reverence, historians seek information and our heritage is thereby enriched.

Testimonies of devotion, pride and remembrance are carved in stone to pay warm tribute to accomplishments and to the life - not death - of a loved one. The cemetery is homeland for family memorials that are a sustaining source of comfort to the living. A cemetery is a history of people; a perpetual record of yesterday and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery exists because every life is worth remembering - always". -Unknown

*******************************

The military rank prefix should only be used if the person was on active duty at the time of death, or retired after serving at least 20 years.

If you are a closer relative than I am & would like a transfer, don't be afraid to ask.
I do NOT strictly adhere to the Find A Grave guidelines regarding transfers.

I want to make this more of a family record, than just a cemetery record. On newer records I've tried to keep it more to a minimum. I believe these are for the closer family to decide.

For the generations that came before us & those that will come after us.

A work this large could not be done without the help of others.

I would especially like to thank Karen K.
The cemeteries around Stumptown in Union Township would not be the same without her.

PLEASE if putting flowers on the memorial of the plain people...PLAIN flowers. They led the simple life for A reason.
A few of the young men were drafted & served in the medical corp during the Civil War..again PLEASE simple flowers
ALSO they do NOT celebrate birthdates or death dates of the dec'd
NOR do they celebrate Halloween
ALSO they do NOT have "pictures" of Jesus or angels in their Bibles or in their homes

Do keep in mind, that the last name of a married woman etched on a stone, may not be the last name that she had when she died.

If you ask for a middle name to be added to a stone & it is not on the memorial stone or on an obituary that you have sent to me to read...
I am NOT going to change it. That is for closer family to decide. That is what they choose for the memorial & that is how it stays.

The same is true for a memorial name. If the stone says William & you want me to change it to John William Doe. Please read the above paragraph.

There are exceptions to the rule on individual basis.

Also note that I have chosen to not put a period after the K on Linda K, the same is true on the memorials. Unless close family would decide to have the change.

Again there are exceptions on an individual basis.

All mistakes are mine & mine alone.

Jeff Gonyea had on his profile the following:

"We don't "own" the memorials we manage - they are not ours. We may create them, we may update them, we may transfer them to others - we are but stewards. They are Find A Grave memorials of human beings, departed.

They are not "friends" on a social media network website to be collected like baseball trading cards. And there's no prize for the one who dies with the most.

The reward (for me) comes from maintaining the most accurate and dignified memorials I can. What we record becomes history, and a record in someone else's family tree. We have a responsibility to do a good job of it. It's a privilege and honor."

*********************

If you are a FAG Contributor, and you send me messages about a memorial, but do not include an email address or have your messages turned off on your profile...I may not respond to your request.

I have had a number of people offer "corrections" to memorials, but when I want to ask for documentation to back up the information and then cannot contact them back to inform/share this with them, I find it all very frustrating. If you have messaging turned off I can't contact you, please don't contact me.

Thank you for taking the time to read this

*************************************************

Why Me?

Why me...
This is a tedious task, much work,
Not a great tree, my family,
Not any kind of tree,
A spindly twig...
A sapling of little importance,
No forest giant we.

A pause

Ethereal whispers,
Persuasive, soft and still:
"Daughter, if you don't remember us...
Who will?"

-- Dot Stutter
Victoria, BC, Canada, 1996

*******************************

The Chosen

We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.

Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do.

In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it.

It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation.

It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do.

With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.

That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.

by Della M Cummings Wright; rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson;
edited and reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943

"Every time an old person dies, it's like a library burning down." –Alex Haley

*****************************

"At a cemetery, lives are commemorated, deaths are recorded, families are reunited, memories are made tangible and love is undisguised. Communities accord respect, families bestow reverence, historians seek information and our heritage is thereby enriched.

Testimonies of devotion, pride and remembrance are carved in stone to pay warm tribute to accomplishments and to the life - not death - of a loved one. The cemetery is homeland for family memorials that are a sustaining source of comfort to the living. A cemetery is a history of people; a perpetual record of yesterday and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery exists because every life is worth remembering - always". -Unknown

*******************************

The military rank prefix should only be used if the person was on active duty at the time of death, or retired after serving at least 20 years.

If you are a closer relative than I am & would like a transfer, don't be afraid to ask.
I do NOT strictly adhere to the Find A Grave guidelines regarding transfers.

I want to make this more of a family record, than just a cemetery record. On newer records I've tried to keep it more to a minimum. I believe these are for the closer family to decide.

For the generations that came before us & those that will come after us.

A work this large could not be done without the help of others.

I would especially like to thank Karen K.
The cemeteries around Stumptown in Union Township would not be the same without her.

PLEASE if putting flowers on the memorial of the plain people...PLAIN flowers. They led the simple life for A reason.
A few of the young men were drafted & served in the medical corp during the Civil War..again PLEASE simple flowers
ALSO they do NOT celebrate birthdates or death dates of the dec'd
NOR do they celebrate Halloween
ALSO they do NOT have "pictures" of Jesus or angels in their Bibles or in their homes

Do keep in mind, that the last name of a married woman etched on a stone, may not be the last name that she had when she died.

If you ask for a middle name to be added to a stone & it is not on the memorial stone or on an obituary that you have sent to me to read...
I am NOT going to change it. That is for closer family to decide. That is what they choose for the memorial & that is how it stays.

The same is true for a memorial name. If the stone says William & you want me to change it to John William Doe. Please read the above paragraph.

There are exceptions to the rule on individual basis.

Also note that I have chosen to not put a period after the K on Linda K, the same is true on the memorials. Unless close family would decide to have the change.

Again there are exceptions on an individual basis.

All mistakes are mine & mine alone.

Jeff Gonyea had on his profile the following:

"We don't "own" the memorials we manage - they are not ours. We may create them, we may update them, we may transfer them to others - we are but stewards. They are Find A Grave memorials of human beings, departed.

They are not "friends" on a social media network website to be collected like baseball trading cards. And there's no prize for the one who dies with the most.

The reward (for me) comes from maintaining the most accurate and dignified memorials I can. What we record becomes history, and a record in someone else's family tree. We have a responsibility to do a good job of it. It's a privilege and honor."

*********************

If you are a FAG Contributor, and you send me messages about a memorial, but do not include an email address or have your messages turned off on your profile...I may not respond to your request.

I have had a number of people offer "corrections" to memorials, but when I want to ask for documentation to back up the information and then cannot contact them back to inform/share this with them, I find it all very frustrating. If you have messaging turned off I can't contact you, please don't contact me.

Thank you for taking the time to read this

*************************************************

Why Me?

Why me...
This is a tedious task, much work,
Not a great tree, my family,
Not any kind of tree,
A spindly twig...
A sapling of little importance,
No forest giant we.

A pause

Ethereal whispers,
Persuasive, soft and still:
"Daughter, if you don't remember us...
Who will?"

-- Dot Stutter
Victoria, BC, Canada, 1996

*******************************

The Chosen

We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.

Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do.

In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.". How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it.

It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation.

It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do.

With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.

That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.

by Della M Cummings Wright; rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson;
edited and reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943