My maternal grandmother used to take me to annual reunions of the descendants of her grandfather. Every year, I heard noteworthy recollections. In particular, there were three spinster sisters who enjoyed telling stories about my grandfather in his youth. In 1985, I asked why one of those sisters hadn't attended, and learned that she had passed away. That same season, I received through my business a timely offer to acquire a license to Family Tree Maker. So, I began to collect and record data on relatives, close ones at first, mostly by questionnaire. Later, I found family Bibles, published obituaries, professionally-made pedigree charts, and more. Some correspondence was answered decades later. Eventually, I had amassed a tree of over 6800 records. Find A Grave enables many of us to share and link data, preserving our ancestral history.

My maternal grandmother used to take me to annual reunions of the descendants of her grandfather. Every year, I heard noteworthy recollections. In particular, there were three spinster sisters who enjoyed telling stories about my grandfather in his youth. In 1985, I asked why one of those sisters hadn't attended, and learned that she had passed away. That same season, I received through my business a timely offer to acquire a license to Family Tree Maker. So, I began to collect and record data on relatives, close ones at first, mostly by questionnaire. Later, I found family Bibles, published obituaries, professionally-made pedigree charts, and more. Some correspondence was answered decades later. Eventually, I had amassed a tree of over 6800 records. Find A Grave enables many of us to share and link data, preserving our ancestral history.