I started genealogical research in 1973 when my brother and I were emptying our family home. Our dear mother had labeled and shared a number of family photos before she died, but my brother and I were amazed to discover a treasure trove of wonderful old manuscripts, some dating back to the 1700s. "...I leave to my eldest daughter Sarah the best feather bed and six silver spoons..." Family bibles, wills, letters, manumission papers, property transfers with the price in English pounds — and not a name was familiar. Who were these people? Why would my parents have had these papers? So I began my genealogical research in a rather backward fashion from the usual dictum: start by asking your elders [I no longer had any elders to ask] and work back in time. Instead, I started my research at the dates of the papers and worked forward to the information I had from my parents. No computers, no genealogical database programs, no internet resources. Just libraries and paper and pencil (I still have my pencil-generated charts and records to remember how painstaking it was). All the frustrating letters I wrote to people in distant places who had no answers for me, and the delight when some pieces fell into place. Now it is the time of the internet for genealogists, and Find A Grave fills a niche. I can help others distant from me with their memories and pieces of information without doing their research for them.

I started genealogical research in 1973 when my brother and I were emptying our family home. Our dear mother had labeled and shared a number of family photos before she died, but my brother and I were amazed to discover a treasure trove of wonderful old manuscripts, some dating back to the 1700s. "...I leave to my eldest daughter Sarah the best feather bed and six silver spoons..." Family bibles, wills, letters, manumission papers, property transfers with the price in English pounds — and not a name was familiar. Who were these people? Why would my parents have had these papers? So I began my genealogical research in a rather backward fashion from the usual dictum: start by asking your elders [I no longer had any elders to ask] and work back in time. Instead, I started my research at the dates of the papers and worked forward to the information I had from my parents. No computers, no genealogical database programs, no internet resources. Just libraries and paper and pencil (I still have my pencil-generated charts and records to remember how painstaking it was). All the frustrating letters I wrote to people in distant places who had no answers for me, and the delight when some pieces fell into place. Now it is the time of the internet for genealogists, and Find A Grave fills a niche. I can help others distant from me with their memories and pieces of information without doing their research for them.