I have always been interested in family history, and seriously started researching around the time I joined Find A Grave. Find A Grave is a wonderful site and I volunteer to add photos when I can. Since most of the cemeteries are huge and their offices are not open all the time (especially on weekends), it will help if you can provide us with the plot location when requesting photos.
As a fellow Find a Graver said in her bio "Everyone knows they have past family members, but until you have names, where they lived, possibly their life story through an obituary, they just don't seem 'real'. I strive to make a memorial page as complete as I can with any information available." I also agree!

Some of the family surnames I am interested in...
Van Hoesen/Van Housen, Allabastro, Uccello, Hudson, Phoenix, Reaney,
Benson/Bennison, Woodcock

Another fellow Find A Graver posted this in their bio and I and would like to share also:

WE ARE THE CHOSEN:

We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us, "Tell our story!" So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying, "I can't let this happen." The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish, how they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth. Without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those whom we had never known before.

-Author Unknown (Please feel free to use this quote as I think the 'Author Unknown' had very special insight)

I have always been interested in family history, and seriously started researching around the time I joined Find A Grave. Find A Grave is a wonderful site and I volunteer to add photos when I can. Since most of the cemeteries are huge and their offices are not open all the time (especially on weekends), it will help if you can provide us with the plot location when requesting photos.
As a fellow Find a Graver said in her bio "Everyone knows they have past family members, but until you have names, where they lived, possibly their life story through an obituary, they just don't seem 'real'. I strive to make a memorial page as complete as I can with any information available." I also agree!

Some of the family surnames I am interested in...
Van Hoesen/Van Housen, Allabastro, Uccello, Hudson, Phoenix, Reaney,
Benson/Bennison, Woodcock

Another fellow Find A Graver posted this in their bio and I and would like to share also:

WE ARE THE CHOSEN:

We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us, "Tell our story!" So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying, "I can't let this happen." The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish, how they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth. Without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those whom we had never known before.

-Author Unknown (Please feel free to use this quote as I think the 'Author Unknown' had very special insight)