I've been interested in family history since the early 1990s when I took an interest in the work my mother had done ahead of me. As were so many things she did for me and my siblings, her efforts to document our family predecessors were a gift!

Over the years I've come to appreciate the ebb and flow of family life — generation by generation. Rather than being a morbid, spooky place, I find cemeteries to be a physical representation of the continuity of life. Even as a small child, before I understood what cemeteries are, I was intrigued by the diversity of gravestones — the various shapes, sizes and colors — that I'd see from the family car in our many drive-bys of the local city cemetery.

Today when in a cemetery and taking time to digest the many unspoken messages found in cemeteries — the size and placement of gravestones, their simplicity or ornateness, the dates indicating short or long lives and possible family tragedies, the repetition of solid family names or introduction of less familiar, possibly fanciful names — I find a feeling of awe and peace in respect for all whose lives are represented around me. Mentally I picture all of the loving, though grieving, friends and family members who have placed the gravestones and visited these final resting places.

Through the years, Find-A-Grave, has evolved and enabled us to more easily add pieces of missing information — and relationships between — our various family members and others whose histories we've encountered in our own family history pursuits. Making these updates helps to provide more complete histories and helps to ensure that seemingly isolated burials — and the people they represent — are not lost to the families they came from and to later family members who search for them.

I will happily accept updates for the memorials I manage and willingly transfer management to folks with a closer tie than I may have. Please feel free to use the photos I've posted — especially any antique photos I've been privileged to possess. My purpose in posting is to share and ensure that the memories of those who came before us live on.

I've been interested in family history since the early 1990s when I took an interest in the work my mother had done ahead of me. As were so many things she did for me and my siblings, her efforts to document our family predecessors were a gift!

Over the years I've come to appreciate the ebb and flow of family life — generation by generation. Rather than being a morbid, spooky place, I find cemeteries to be a physical representation of the continuity of life. Even as a small child, before I understood what cemeteries are, I was intrigued by the diversity of gravestones — the various shapes, sizes and colors — that I'd see from the family car in our many drive-bys of the local city cemetery.

Today when in a cemetery and taking time to digest the many unspoken messages found in cemeteries — the size and placement of gravestones, their simplicity or ornateness, the dates indicating short or long lives and possible family tragedies, the repetition of solid family names or introduction of less familiar, possibly fanciful names — I find a feeling of awe and peace in respect for all whose lives are represented around me. Mentally I picture all of the loving, though grieving, friends and family members who have placed the gravestones and visited these final resting places.

Through the years, Find-A-Grave, has evolved and enabled us to more easily add pieces of missing information — and relationships between — our various family members and others whose histories we've encountered in our own family history pursuits. Making these updates helps to provide more complete histories and helps to ensure that seemingly isolated burials — and the people they represent — are not lost to the families they came from and to later family members who search for them.

I will happily accept updates for the memorials I manage and willingly transfer management to folks with a closer tie than I may have. Please feel free to use the photos I've posted — especially any antique photos I've been privileged to possess. My purpose in posting is to share and ensure that the memories of those who came before us live on.