I want to thank all the selfless members who volunteer to honor and respect those who have passed before us, and to wish strength to those that might have lost a loved one recently. To sincerely thank them for the countless hours that they have contributed walking the cemeteries photographing, creating & or maintaining memorials, and sharing that information with the millions that would not be able to see it otherwise.

I find it such an honor to be able to join people that have been separated for so long, especially children that died at birth, or passed at a very young age, often separated by many miles and years. Even if just virtual connection it always gives me a special feeling knowing that others might not have to dig around to find they even existed in the first place.

Please remember that I always try to portray as accurate data as possible and that I am a volunteer doing this out of the kindness of my heart. I have joined thousands of individual graves with their loved ones that are not even related to me and do this in hopes that it helps others in the future, please remember this before jumping to harsh conclusions and that this is also a work in progress and we can all make mistakes or interpret documents differently.

I thought I might borrow what Jeff Gonyea on his Find a Grave profile:

"We don't "own" the memorials we manage - they are not ours. We may create them, we may update them, we may transfer them to others - we are but stewards. They are Find A Grave memorials of human beings, departed. They are not "friends" on a social media network website to be collected like baseball trading cards. And there's no prize for the one who dies with the most.

The reward (for me) comes from maintaining the most accurate and dignified memorials I can. What we record becomes history, and a record in someone else's family tree. We have a responsibility to do a good job of it. It's a privilege and honor."

Well put Jeff, and I just wish more of the people could soak these words of wisdom in.

I want to thank all the selfless members who volunteer to honor and respect those who have passed before us, and to wish strength to those that might have lost a loved one recently. To sincerely thank them for the countless hours that they have contributed walking the cemeteries photographing, creating & or maintaining memorials, and sharing that information with the millions that would not be able to see it otherwise.

I find it such an honor to be able to join people that have been separated for so long, especially children that died at birth, or passed at a very young age, often separated by many miles and years. Even if just virtual connection it always gives me a special feeling knowing that others might not have to dig around to find they even existed in the first place.

Please remember that I always try to portray as accurate data as possible and that I am a volunteer doing this out of the kindness of my heart. I have joined thousands of individual graves with their loved ones that are not even related to me and do this in hopes that it helps others in the future, please remember this before jumping to harsh conclusions and that this is also a work in progress and we can all make mistakes or interpret documents differently.

I thought I might borrow what Jeff Gonyea on his Find a Grave profile:

"We don't "own" the memorials we manage - they are not ours. We may create them, we may update them, we may transfer them to others - we are but stewards. They are Find A Grave memorials of human beings, departed. They are not "friends" on a social media network website to be collected like baseball trading cards. And there's no prize for the one who dies with the most.

The reward (for me) comes from maintaining the most accurate and dignified memorials I can. What we record becomes history, and a record in someone else's family tree. We have a responsibility to do a good job of it. It's a privilege and honor."

Well put Jeff, and I just wish more of the people could soak these words of wisdom in.