After I retired, I felt a calling to find out who and where my brothers and I came from. It all started with a genealogy chart my Grandma B shared with me of her mother's line "Sauder". The Sauders were German Mennonites who came to Ontario, Canada in the mid 1840s to escape persecution. Thanks to modern technology, I've been able to find all of my direct lines including their siblings, and as a bonus, many cousins I never knew existed and now we keep in touch! It's exciting to know that what we were told growing up was true! DNA testing proved it to the extent possible and now it's all on paper (at least online).

This journey has been such an emotional experience and led me to becoming a Find A Grave volunteer! I only wish I had asked more questions while my parents and grandparents were still living. I have found that by researching my ancestors it keeps them alive. They will never be forgotten. Now I'm trying to help others with their discoveries.

In 2015, I became involved with the USGenWeb project, a free genealogy resource ran completely by volunteers. First, as the coordinator of the AZGenWeb Greenlee County website where my paternal grandparents lived and my dad was born. Since then I have added two more AZ counties (Navajo & Pinal) as well as Douglas and Chelan Counties in Washington state (WAGenWeb) and Emmet County in Michigan (MiGenWeb). I have personal connections to each of these counties and enjoy helping others locate information about their ancestors.

Please feel free to use the headstone photos I have taken and uploaded at Find-A-Grave for your own personal use. I don't need to be credited, they are yours once I upload them.

I hope in some small way being a volunteer photographer here will help someone else discover something new and exciting in their family history.

After I retired, I felt a calling to find out who and where my brothers and I came from. It all started with a genealogy chart my Grandma B shared with me of her mother's line "Sauder". The Sauders were German Mennonites who came to Ontario, Canada in the mid 1840s to escape persecution. Thanks to modern technology, I've been able to find all of my direct lines including their siblings, and as a bonus, many cousins I never knew existed and now we keep in touch! It's exciting to know that what we were told growing up was true! DNA testing proved it to the extent possible and now it's all on paper (at least online).

This journey has been such an emotional experience and led me to becoming a Find A Grave volunteer! I only wish I had asked more questions while my parents and grandparents were still living. I have found that by researching my ancestors it keeps them alive. They will never be forgotten. Now I'm trying to help others with their discoveries.

In 2015, I became involved with the USGenWeb project, a free genealogy resource ran completely by volunteers. First, as the coordinator of the AZGenWeb Greenlee County website where my paternal grandparents lived and my dad was born. Since then I have added two more AZ counties (Navajo & Pinal) as well as Douglas and Chelan Counties in Washington state (WAGenWeb) and Emmet County in Michigan (MiGenWeb). I have personal connections to each of these counties and enjoy helping others locate information about their ancestors.

Please feel free to use the headstone photos I have taken and uploaded at Find-A-Grave for your own personal use. I don't need to be credited, they are yours once I upload them.

I hope in some small way being a volunteer photographer here will help someone else discover something new and exciting in their family history.