My primary interest is in the genealogy of my own family, but I've fallen in love with the beauty of tombstones, old and new, because they contain so much history. We are blessed to have this great genealogical site where memories of loved ones continue to be preserved along with the stones under which they lie. It's a data base that took dedicated FAG volunteers years to build, and for this reason, access to it and its shared documents will, hopefully, always remain free!!

I can no longer scale cemetery hills so am now "an armchair graver" who enjoys putting together genealogy puzzles and sharing what I find, hoping that something I've posted will one day fill a blank in someone else's tree. I especially appreciate those who have temporarily entrusted memorials to me to research and be a part of another family for a little while. (Gives me something to look forward to each day and makes me feel productive!) Thanks, too, to those who have transferred family members which enables me to quickly make additions as I find them...AND to anyone who has found a cemetery for one of my unknown burials and kindly notified me so I could move them "home." (I add these because people are only forgotten if no one ever knew they existed, and just because someone doesn't have a gravestone doesn't lessen their importance to descendants!! Every soul deserves to be remembered by as many people as possible for as long as possible, whether a life story or a mere scrap of information about what they looked like, what they did, or who they loved.)

"A person is only forgotten once their name is forgotten." --Gunter Demnig, Köln artist

"The history of the family is as important as the history of the world." --Adalbert Stifter (1805-1862)

✔ PLEASE NOTE: If I find the cemetery for an unknown burial, I will notify the creator so he/she can edit their memorial...as long as it's not someone in my tree who I have spent hours researching!

Re: Transfers
The Golden Rule also trumps "the guidelines" here, so feel free to ask...no matter how far up the tree!! If in none of mine, I won't refuse anyone access to family OR friends, and it's sooo much more fun to work with those who think the same!! I am not a grave collector like some who post names en mass from cemetery readings and online obituaries but then refuse to share them...even if they've sat "naked" for years! Anyone can transcribe names from books while "manage" to me means enhancing or sharing them with other gravers who will!! There are no prizes for having "the most," so it behooves me why anyone would even WANT to manage a number beyond their ability to maintain!! That's stingy and small, but "team players" are easy to spot....as are those who are not!!

✔ PLEASE NOTE: I am a stickler for details, so when I post a memorial, I work as hard on a stranger's as I do for a member of my own tree. I don't claim to be perfect, but carelessly posting incorrect names, dates, and misspellings DO rattle my cage, the result, I guess, of being a legal and accounting secretary for many years where there was never room for error. (Having teachers say, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well" has served me well.) To those who fill bios with irrelevant info copied from familysearch.com that repeats info in designated fields, I just shake my head.

Feel free to leave flowers on my memorials, but pleeease don't use them instead of SACs to communicate bio info. That only clutters up an otherwise neat-looking memorial and is just tacky!! (FAG's rule, not mine.)

Re: Documents
It is Find A Grave's goal "to have meaningfully accurate memorials that honor those who have passed away," so feel free to add birth, marriage, and death certificates to any memorial I have created because they provide visible verification of vital information. (Genealogy Without Sources is Mythology! © Lorine McGinnis Schulze) Just be sure to select the "Other" tab when you add them so they will be placed in the proper place.

Re: Inscriptions
I love them...especially the epitaphs because they are so meaningful and touching when we take the time to read them! (I include them wherever possible because families of the deceased thought they were important and cared enough to have them carved in stone!!)

Re: Photos
Pictures of tombstones are just pictures of stones, so feel free to use any I have posted and appreciate that I haven't marked them up with my name! Family photos are a different story!! (NOTE TO ANCESTRY.COM AND OTHER INTERNET SITES: My family photos are intended for personal family genealogical use, so please don't copy them without my permission!)

REMINDER: Unless you are the author, it is copyright infringement to post obituaries verbatim without crediting the publication and its date. Obits are wonderful sources of information but are written for local publication for only a day or two....NOT to become posted permanently on the Internet!! Per FAG policy and out of respect for their privacy, I choose to reword any that I post so as not to reveal full names of survivors and where they live...and especially not those of children and the elderly. (Think about it!! Would you want the names of YOUR grandchildren and where they live put on the Internet....or that YOUR elderly mother or father now lives alone???)

Think, too, before adding a new memorial without checking first to make sure one hasn't already been created. FAG has a "one-memorial-per-person" rule, and just because you have more information or walked a cemetery to take a photo does NOT give you the right to ignore the memorial created before yours. (It takes no longer to do a FAG search than it does to search a single cemetery!) If you want to manage it, ask!! Team players will comply with your request.

✔ FINAL NOTE: PLEEASE DO NOT POST MY PERSONAL E-MAIL ADDRESS ON ANYONE'S MEMORIAL. I have allowed my address to be displayed on my profile page, but it is for Find A Grave members only, not the world wide web!! (A member must be signed in to see it.)
Happy graving!
--Nancy Lane Kegresse

(Seeking info on surnames Broedel, Delage, Hercher. Kegresse, Lane, Lankford, Love, Mayes, Porter, Sarger, Sprague, Stoffel/Stophel, Schwarz/Schwartz/Swartz, Tisdale, Ullman, Unger, and Voigt/Voight.)

My primary interest is in the genealogy of my own family, but I've fallen in love with the beauty of tombstones, old and new, because they contain so much history. We are blessed to have this great genealogical site where memories of loved ones continue to be preserved along with the stones under which they lie. It's a data base that took dedicated FAG volunteers years to build, and for this reason, access to it and its shared documents will, hopefully, always remain free!!

I can no longer scale cemetery hills so am now "an armchair graver" who enjoys putting together genealogy puzzles and sharing what I find, hoping that something I've posted will one day fill a blank in someone else's tree. I especially appreciate those who have temporarily entrusted memorials to me to research and be a part of another family for a little while. (Gives me something to look forward to each day and makes me feel productive!) Thanks, too, to those who have transferred family members which enables me to quickly make additions as I find them...AND to anyone who has found a cemetery for one of my unknown burials and kindly notified me so I could move them "home." (I add these because people are only forgotten if no one ever knew they existed, and just because someone doesn't have a gravestone doesn't lessen their importance to descendants!! Every soul deserves to be remembered by as many people as possible for as long as possible, whether a life story or a mere scrap of information about what they looked like, what they did, or who they loved.)

"A person is only forgotten once their name is forgotten." --Gunter Demnig, Köln artist

"The history of the family is as important as the history of the world." --Adalbert Stifter (1805-1862)

✔ PLEASE NOTE: If I find the cemetery for an unknown burial, I will notify the creator so he/she can edit their memorial...as long as it's not someone in my tree who I have spent hours researching!

Re: Transfers
The Golden Rule also trumps "the guidelines" here, so feel free to ask...no matter how far up the tree!! If in none of mine, I won't refuse anyone access to family OR friends, and it's sooo much more fun to work with those who think the same!! I am not a grave collector like some who post names en mass from cemetery readings and online obituaries but then refuse to share them...even if they've sat "naked" for years! Anyone can transcribe names from books while "manage" to me means enhancing or sharing them with other gravers who will!! There are no prizes for having "the most," so it behooves me why anyone would even WANT to manage a number beyond their ability to maintain!! That's stingy and small, but "team players" are easy to spot....as are those who are not!!

✔ PLEASE NOTE: I am a stickler for details, so when I post a memorial, I work as hard on a stranger's as I do for a member of my own tree. I don't claim to be perfect, but carelessly posting incorrect names, dates, and misspellings DO rattle my cage, the result, I guess, of being a legal and accounting secretary for many years where there was never room for error. (Having teachers say, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well" has served me well.) To those who fill bios with irrelevant info copied from familysearch.com that repeats info in designated fields, I just shake my head.

Feel free to leave flowers on my memorials, but pleeease don't use them instead of SACs to communicate bio info. That only clutters up an otherwise neat-looking memorial and is just tacky!! (FAG's rule, not mine.)

Re: Documents
It is Find A Grave's goal "to have meaningfully accurate memorials that honor those who have passed away," so feel free to add birth, marriage, and death certificates to any memorial I have created because they provide visible verification of vital information. (Genealogy Without Sources is Mythology! © Lorine McGinnis Schulze) Just be sure to select the "Other" tab when you add them so they will be placed in the proper place.

Re: Inscriptions
I love them...especially the epitaphs because they are so meaningful and touching when we take the time to read them! (I include them wherever possible because families of the deceased thought they were important and cared enough to have them carved in stone!!)

Re: Photos
Pictures of tombstones are just pictures of stones, so feel free to use any I have posted and appreciate that I haven't marked them up with my name! Family photos are a different story!! (NOTE TO ANCESTRY.COM AND OTHER INTERNET SITES: My family photos are intended for personal family genealogical use, so please don't copy them without my permission!)

REMINDER: Unless you are the author, it is copyright infringement to post obituaries verbatim without crediting the publication and its date. Obits are wonderful sources of information but are written for local publication for only a day or two....NOT to become posted permanently on the Internet!! Per FAG policy and out of respect for their privacy, I choose to reword any that I post so as not to reveal full names of survivors and where they live...and especially not those of children and the elderly. (Think about it!! Would you want the names of YOUR grandchildren and where they live put on the Internet....or that YOUR elderly mother or father now lives alone???)

Think, too, before adding a new memorial without checking first to make sure one hasn't already been created. FAG has a "one-memorial-per-person" rule, and just because you have more information or walked a cemetery to take a photo does NOT give you the right to ignore the memorial created before yours. (It takes no longer to do a FAG search than it does to search a single cemetery!) If you want to manage it, ask!! Team players will comply with your request.

✔ FINAL NOTE: PLEEASE DO NOT POST MY PERSONAL E-MAIL ADDRESS ON ANYONE'S MEMORIAL. I have allowed my address to be displayed on my profile page, but it is for Find A Grave members only, not the world wide web!! (A member must be signed in to see it.)
Happy graving!
--Nancy Lane Kegresse

(Seeking info on surnames Broedel, Delage, Hercher. Kegresse, Lane, Lankford, Love, Mayes, Porter, Sarger, Sprague, Stoffel/Stophel, Schwarz/Schwartz/Swartz, Tisdale, Ullman, Unger, and Voigt/Voight.)