I began going to the cemetaries with my maternal grandmother to help her decorate the family graves when I was a child. I've always felt that someone needed to remember them.

We would walk past bare graves and I would ask her if she knew that person, she'd say no and I'd tell her that it was a shame that no one stopped by to look in on them. There were some family members graves that even though they were distant relatives and had family members living, the only flowers on their graves were the ones she and I laid every year.

Later on, I started taking her to the cemetary. We always decorated the same graves and seemed to add a new bouquet or two as the years went by. I eventually started taking my paternal grandmother also. They both have family buried in the same cemetary so I would get to go there twice.

My maternal grandmother passed away in 2009. I still carry on without her. Now I have an extra bunch of flowers to carry.

My other grandmother knows that when she's gone, her family will be taken care of for as long as I can. (She passed away in March 2012).

I got involved with this website because of how I felt when I was younger. I would assume that the people resting next to each other were related in some way, but you never really know. By doing this someone can look at a memorial and find out who they were and maybe where they came from. People get lost and there is always someone looking for them. Sometimes all it takes is one name or date from one person that will make someone else's day. I hope that the information that I may be able to give will be just what someone else needs.

Find A Grave is such an invaluable tool when researching your family tree. By searching through the memorials, I have been able to find more ancestors and add information to the names I've been working on for many years.

My family tree consists the names of: Adams, Briggs, Colton, Coyne, Forrester, Fuzzell, Gifford, Harlin, Hildebrand, McConnell, McKibben, Spurgeon, Thomas, Wooton and Williams. Members of my tree have been traced back to Scotland in 1086, Norway, before Surnames were used, a paternal great-grandmother was a direct descendant of Nan'ye-hi, aka Nancy Ward, Beloved Woman of the Cherokees.

I have had emails in the recent past pertaining to the memorials of family members that are buried in cemeteries in Missouri and Oklahoma asking me to connect a child to a parent or a sibling to a sibling etc, and other emails informing me that I NEED TO CORRECT THESE MEMORIALS NOW. My answer to these has been that I CAN'T DO THAT if I am not the creator or maintainer of an individual's memorial. So, please, do not leave me a message or send me any emails concerning this. I have already done everything I can to correct/connect the memorials that fall inside any of my families circles. I have attempted to contact the creator/maintainer of the memorials and have not received any response from them. I have sent information that has never been updated, I have sent suggestions with memorial numbers and family history asking the creator/maintainer to connect family members, I have made numerous transfer requests, all to no avail. I have sent personal emails to these individuals and have been ignored. I have notified the administration on numerous occasions over a two year period and received a response that the memorials in question would be transferred to me. That action still has not been taken.

I understand the frustration of trying to contact the creator/maintainer of a memorial with information and not getting any response. The next step is to contact the Find A Grave administration with your frustrations and concerns, only they can remedy the problem.

Feel free to contact me about any of my family members or the memorials I have created or maintain. Although it may take me a few days, I will respond. But, until I am able to confirm the information sent, whether it be through messages, suggestions or email, I will NOT update or edit the memorials in question. I am tired of people demanding that I make these changes with information that I eventually find to be incorrect.

**PLEASE DO NOT ADD PICTURES TO ANY OF MY MEMORIALS WITHOUT CONTACTING ME FIRST** Some people have a difficult and long grieving process and seeing their loved one's pictures popping up all over the internet is unsettling.

Pictures that I have added are from family collections and personal property, please contact me before you copy them and explain your relationship. I have found pictures all over ancestry trees that people have attached to incorrect people, just because the names are the same.

The following is directly from Find A Grave FAQ's:

I found a photo of a relative on Find A Grave, can I use it?
Photos posted to memorials on Find A Grave are copyrighted by the member who submitted the photos. Lifting the photo to use elsewhere would be a violation of copyright. You must obtain written permission from the member to use any photo for your own use. In general if you did not take the photo yourself, you do not hold the copyright to the photo

I began going to the cemetaries with my maternal grandmother to help her decorate the family graves when I was a child. I've always felt that someone needed to remember them.

We would walk past bare graves and I would ask her if she knew that person, she'd say no and I'd tell her that it was a shame that no one stopped by to look in on them. There were some family members graves that even though they were distant relatives and had family members living, the only flowers on their graves were the ones she and I laid every year.

Later on, I started taking her to the cemetary. We always decorated the same graves and seemed to add a new bouquet or two as the years went by. I eventually started taking my paternal grandmother also. They both have family buried in the same cemetary so I would get to go there twice.

My maternal grandmother passed away in 2009. I still carry on without her. Now I have an extra bunch of flowers to carry.

My other grandmother knows that when she's gone, her family will be taken care of for as long as I can. (She passed away in March 2012).

I got involved with this website because of how I felt when I was younger. I would assume that the people resting next to each other were related in some way, but you never really know. By doing this someone can look at a memorial and find out who they were and maybe where they came from. People get lost and there is always someone looking for them. Sometimes all it takes is one name or date from one person that will make someone else's day. I hope that the information that I may be able to give will be just what someone else needs.

Find A Grave is such an invaluable tool when researching your family tree. By searching through the memorials, I have been able to find more ancestors and add information to the names I've been working on for many years.

My family tree consists the names of: Adams, Briggs, Colton, Coyne, Forrester, Fuzzell, Gifford, Harlin, Hildebrand, McConnell, McKibben, Spurgeon, Thomas, Wooton and Williams. Members of my tree have been traced back to Scotland in 1086, Norway, before Surnames were used, a paternal great-grandmother was a direct descendant of Nan'ye-hi, aka Nancy Ward, Beloved Woman of the Cherokees.

I have had emails in the recent past pertaining to the memorials of family members that are buried in cemeteries in Missouri and Oklahoma asking me to connect a child to a parent or a sibling to a sibling etc, and other emails informing me that I NEED TO CORRECT THESE MEMORIALS NOW. My answer to these has been that I CAN'T DO THAT if I am not the creator or maintainer of an individual's memorial. So, please, do not leave me a message or send me any emails concerning this. I have already done everything I can to correct/connect the memorials that fall inside any of my families circles. I have attempted to contact the creator/maintainer of the memorials and have not received any response from them. I have sent information that has never been updated, I have sent suggestions with memorial numbers and family history asking the creator/maintainer to connect family members, I have made numerous transfer requests, all to no avail. I have sent personal emails to these individuals and have been ignored. I have notified the administration on numerous occasions over a two year period and received a response that the memorials in question would be transferred to me. That action still has not been taken.

I understand the frustration of trying to contact the creator/maintainer of a memorial with information and not getting any response. The next step is to contact the Find A Grave administration with your frustrations and concerns, only they can remedy the problem.

Feel free to contact me about any of my family members or the memorials I have created or maintain. Although it may take me a few days, I will respond. But, until I am able to confirm the information sent, whether it be through messages, suggestions or email, I will NOT update or edit the memorials in question. I am tired of people demanding that I make these changes with information that I eventually find to be incorrect.

**PLEASE DO NOT ADD PICTURES TO ANY OF MY MEMORIALS WITHOUT CONTACTING ME FIRST** Some people have a difficult and long grieving process and seeing their loved one's pictures popping up all over the internet is unsettling.

Pictures that I have added are from family collections and personal property, please contact me before you copy them and explain your relationship. I have found pictures all over ancestry trees that people have attached to incorrect people, just because the names are the same.

The following is directly from Find A Grave FAQ's:

I found a photo of a relative on Find A Grave, can I use it?
Photos posted to memorials on Find A Grave are copyrighted by the member who submitted the photos. Lifting the photo to use elsewhere would be a violation of copyright. You must obtain written permission from the member to use any photo for your own use. In general if you did not take the photo yourself, you do not hold the copyright to the photo