My friends think I'm weird.
I spend hours each day researching my family geneology. I like to visit historical plantations, old cities, battlefields and old cemeteries, especially reading the old stones. I have found that cemeteries are peaceful and beautiful and are located in some of the most picturesque locations in this country.
My friends don't understand why I get so excited when I find an old document on an ancestor long passed away, or an old obit on someone whom I have never met.
But the way i see it, these are people whom once lived, loved, laughed, suffered, fought and struggled just like you and I do today. One can't help to wonder how that mother managed when she lost four of her children to small pox within the same month, or the wife who was waiting for her husband to return from war, wondering if he is injured or alive? Or the mother who is with child, but also is dying from consumption, struggling to stay alive long enough so that her unborn child may live? What did it feel like when that family picked up roots and headed west into territory that had yet to be discovered by the early European explorers, leaving behind their family, friends and familiar way of living? What was the topic of discussion around the dinner table? What was the "big" news of their day? What was their concerns and heartaches? What were their joys?
Each person has a story to tell and it should be told. When touching a gravestone you are touching a part of history. As old cemeteries age and are long forgotten to decay, it is our responsibility as descendents of our ancestors and as Americans to protect that history and to tell their stories.

My friends think I'm weird.
I spend hours each day researching my family geneology. I like to visit historical plantations, old cities, battlefields and old cemeteries, especially reading the old stones. I have found that cemeteries are peaceful and beautiful and are located in some of the most picturesque locations in this country.
My friends don't understand why I get so excited when I find an old document on an ancestor long passed away, or an old obit on someone whom I have never met.
But the way i see it, these are people whom once lived, loved, laughed, suffered, fought and struggled just like you and I do today. One can't help to wonder how that mother managed when she lost four of her children to small pox within the same month, or the wife who was waiting for her husband to return from war, wondering if he is injured or alive? Or the mother who is with child, but also is dying from consumption, struggling to stay alive long enough so that her unborn child may live? What did it feel like when that family picked up roots and headed west into territory that had yet to be discovered by the early European explorers, leaving behind their family, friends and familiar way of living? What was the topic of discussion around the dinner table? What was the "big" news of their day? What was their concerns and heartaches? What were their joys?
Each person has a story to tell and it should be told. When touching a gravestone you are touching a part of history. As old cemeteries age and are long forgotten to decay, it is our responsibility as descendents of our ancestors and as Americans to protect that history and to tell their stories.