To Everyone: I have terminal cancer and most likely will pass sometime soon. I am attempting to transfer all my memorials to Findagrave members who are related to them. If you are related to anyone of those I manage please contact me and I will transfer to you.

First and foremost I'm a serious family historian. Like many others involved in Findagrave I maintain memorials strictly for that purpose. I believe that complete correct memorials created by people who care about the people they memorialize will withstand the test of time and scrutiny. Thank you to the many really nice folks who have transferred family members to me so that I may keep them updated and linked as I continue to research them.

I would like to address those who believe adding death certificates to Findagrave memorials is wrong. Firstly they are out there on the internet already anyway, so what's the difference? The information on death certificates is invaluable. I have made two of my most remarkable breakthroughs with information gleaned from a mere two certificates resulting in finding several hundred ancestors, that's ancestors, not just family. They are also THE primary source of burial locations, which is what Findagrave is all about, how can you deny that? And lastly, what some of you find repulsive, is how our family members died. Well I for one am very interested in what diseases are responsible for deaths in my family. Knowledge is power, and what better power to have than to know what you are up against. Even a suicide can answer questions. I always wondered why my maternal grandfather was so quiet and tight lipped until I found out his father had killed himself when Granddad was a young man.. It explained a lot for me, and fills me with love for my poor Granddad who obviously cared very deeply for his father. So please, whomever you may be, rethink your objections to death certificates, a primary source of information about all our ancestors and share them with your family.

My famous bio is for my cousin Francis Rawn Shunk, 8th governor of the state of Pennsylvania 1845-1848, who died of TB within two weeks of resigning his office. I'm also the proud cousin of two Civil War Brevet Major Generals, Jacob Bowman Sweitzer, who made a difference at the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, and his brother Nelson Bowman "NB" Sweitzer, adjutant to General George McClellan, and later in charge of the troops searching for John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln. My Civil War associations also include two other cousins who were officers in the Union Army, and my Great Granddad Edward's four brothers and one nephew who, like him, were all Union Army soldiers.

Included amongst my memorials are most of my Philadelphia and Southeastern Pennsylvania Revolutionary Patriots from both my Mom's and my Dad's ancestors. All seven were German or Swiss ancestral lines making me very Pennsylvania Dutch.
Find my YDNA at:
http://www.lawrence-ons.org/DNA.html My kit is #3892 Haplogroup I2a2a1c1b M223 L703 which unfortunately is such a rare DNA nobody else has remotely matched my two cousins and myself in the past 16years. The match with a European cousin has revealed my true paternal line, to a Swiss hero of the 1653 Peasants' Revolt, who was one of twelve leaders beheaded for his part in it, he being Adam Zeltner 1605-1653. See his memorial #141424182.

My bio photo is of my Great Granddad Edward Lawrence (memorial # 83827999) holding the youngest of his three sons, my Granddad George Robbin Lawrence. The photo was taken in 1863 in Philadelphia, Pa right before Edward was drafted into the Union Army.

To Everyone: I have terminal cancer and most likely will pass sometime soon. I am attempting to transfer all my memorials to Findagrave members who are related to them. If you are related to anyone of those I manage please contact me and I will transfer to you.

First and foremost I'm a serious family historian. Like many others involved in Findagrave I maintain memorials strictly for that purpose. I believe that complete correct memorials created by people who care about the people they memorialize will withstand the test of time and scrutiny. Thank you to the many really nice folks who have transferred family members to me so that I may keep them updated and linked as I continue to research them.

I would like to address those who believe adding death certificates to Findagrave memorials is wrong. Firstly they are out there on the internet already anyway, so what's the difference? The information on death certificates is invaluable. I have made two of my most remarkable breakthroughs with information gleaned from a mere two certificates resulting in finding several hundred ancestors, that's ancestors, not just family. They are also THE primary source of burial locations, which is what Findagrave is all about, how can you deny that? And lastly, what some of you find repulsive, is how our family members died. Well I for one am very interested in what diseases are responsible for deaths in my family. Knowledge is power, and what better power to have than to know what you are up against. Even a suicide can answer questions. I always wondered why my maternal grandfather was so quiet and tight lipped until I found out his father had killed himself when Granddad was a young man.. It explained a lot for me, and fills me with love for my poor Granddad who obviously cared very deeply for his father. So please, whomever you may be, rethink your objections to death certificates, a primary source of information about all our ancestors and share them with your family.

My famous bio is for my cousin Francis Rawn Shunk, 8th governor of the state of Pennsylvania 1845-1848, who died of TB within two weeks of resigning his office. I'm also the proud cousin of two Civil War Brevet Major Generals, Jacob Bowman Sweitzer, who made a difference at the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, and his brother Nelson Bowman "NB" Sweitzer, adjutant to General George McClellan, and later in charge of the troops searching for John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln. My Civil War associations also include two other cousins who were officers in the Union Army, and my Great Granddad Edward's four brothers and one nephew who, like him, were all Union Army soldiers.

Included amongst my memorials are most of my Philadelphia and Southeastern Pennsylvania Revolutionary Patriots from both my Mom's and my Dad's ancestors. All seven were German or Swiss ancestral lines making me very Pennsylvania Dutch.
Find my YDNA at:
http://www.lawrence-ons.org/DNA.html My kit is #3892 Haplogroup I2a2a1c1b M223 L703 which unfortunately is such a rare DNA nobody else has remotely matched my two cousins and myself in the past 16years. The match with a European cousin has revealed my true paternal line, to a Swiss hero of the 1653 Peasants' Revolt, who was one of twelve leaders beheaded for his part in it, he being Adam Zeltner 1605-1653. See his memorial #141424182.

My bio photo is of my Great Granddad Edward Lawrence (memorial # 83827999) holding the youngest of his three sons, my Granddad George Robbin Lawrence. The photo was taken in 1863 in Philadelphia, Pa right before Edward was drafted into the Union Army.