Genealogy first piqued my interest back in the mid 1970s, though I had always been one who enjoyed listening to stories of yesteryear, looked forward to visiting with aunts, uncles, and cousins, and liked having close ties with members of my extended family (thanks to my parents). What started as a hobby quickly became a passion; and in short time, of course, it became an obsession. Fellow family historians will know exactly what that means.

In the five decades which have since passed, I've badgered and bothered scores of wonderful cousins, collected boxes upon boxes of 'family notes', tracked our family roots through four centuries (back to the era of Samuel Champlain), compiled a variety of personal manuscripts and charts, and spent countless hours hunting down family burial sites in cemeteries near and far. My ancestral connections are 99% French — mostly Acadien on my dad's side, mostly Québecois on my mom's — with a 1% spattering of English and American Indian.

As the late French-Canadien historian Raymond Douville once wrote:
"... it may be impossible to know where we're going, but we can always find out where we've been".

Documenting one's family history is a reward unto itself; but to memorialize those who came before us, especially family members and friends who were once part of our lives, is a simple yet heartfelt gesture that says: "You may be gone, but you are not forgotten".

Special thanks to Jim Tipton, the founder of FindAGrave, to the good folks who work hard to maintain this website, and to the many volunteer contributors — especially those who go the extra distance to put a smile on someone's face.

I count myself among the contributors who have no interest in possessively managing thousands of memorials; yet I'm grateful to those who regularly add dozens of new memorials — with a willingness to transfer the ones they don't personally know. Likewise, I'll gladly transfer to family members or friends any of the memorials I've created — as long as they're not personally connected to me in some way. And from a genealogical point of view, I have a special appreciation for those who carefully research and accurately document the past. We all make mistakes, but there's a vast amount of misinformation and sloppy documentation on the internet.

If I happen to fulfill a photo request for you, I'm glad to do so. Feel free to use any of those photos as you wish. I really don't need (or expect) any personal credit for snapping a photo or two; just pay it forward if you can, by helping someone else. It's a good feeling to know that you've made someone's day.

Genealogy first piqued my interest back in the mid 1970s, though I had always been one who enjoyed listening to stories of yesteryear, looked forward to visiting with aunts, uncles, and cousins, and liked having close ties with members of my extended family (thanks to my parents). What started as a hobby quickly became a passion; and in short time, of course, it became an obsession. Fellow family historians will know exactly what that means.

In the five decades which have since passed, I've badgered and bothered scores of wonderful cousins, collected boxes upon boxes of 'family notes', tracked our family roots through four centuries (back to the era of Samuel Champlain), compiled a variety of personal manuscripts and charts, and spent countless hours hunting down family burial sites in cemeteries near and far. My ancestral connections are 99% French — mostly Acadien on my dad's side, mostly Québecois on my mom's — with a 1% spattering of English and American Indian.

As the late French-Canadien historian Raymond Douville once wrote:
"... it may be impossible to know where we're going, but we can always find out where we've been".

Documenting one's family history is a reward unto itself; but to memorialize those who came before us, especially family members and friends who were once part of our lives, is a simple yet heartfelt gesture that says: "You may be gone, but you are not forgotten".

Special thanks to Jim Tipton, the founder of FindAGrave, to the good folks who work hard to maintain this website, and to the many volunteer contributors — especially those who go the extra distance to put a smile on someone's face.

I count myself among the contributors who have no interest in possessively managing thousands of memorials; yet I'm grateful to those who regularly add dozens of new memorials — with a willingness to transfer the ones they don't personally know. Likewise, I'll gladly transfer to family members or friends any of the memorials I've created — as long as they're not personally connected to me in some way. And from a genealogical point of view, I have a special appreciation for those who carefully research and accurately document the past. We all make mistakes, but there's a vast amount of misinformation and sloppy documentation on the internet.

If I happen to fulfill a photo request for you, I'm glad to do so. Feel free to use any of those photos as you wish. I really don't need (or expect) any personal credit for snapping a photo or two; just pay it forward if you can, by helping someone else. It's a good feeling to know that you've made someone's day.