I have been researching my family history for almost 40 years. It began because my paternal grandmother told such interesting and funny stories about her relatives that I wanted to find out more about them. This hobby "addiction" of mine has been done so that some small part of my ancestor's stories can be told.

Many old family cemeteries are in danger of being lost. Relatives who once cared for these cemeteries are now resting in them and descendants often live too far away to continue the care to maintain them.

By placing memorials on Find A Grave, it is my hope that this information will not only help others, but the records of these family cemeteries can be preserved.

Some favorites:

DEAR ANCESTOR

Your tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out
On the faded, mossy stone.

It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so.

I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you.
Author Unknown

**********************************************
Do not fret old age, it is a gift that has been denied to many.
**********************************************

MOTTO TO LIVE BY
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"

- Hunter S. Thompson
************************************************
THE STORY TELLERS
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 story tellers of the tribe.

I have been researching my family history for almost 40 years. It began because my paternal grandmother told such interesting and funny stories about her relatives that I wanted to find out more about them. This hobby "addiction" of mine has been done so that some small part of my ancestor's stories can be told.

Many old family cemeteries are in danger of being lost. Relatives who once cared for these cemeteries are now resting in them and descendants often live too far away to continue the care to maintain them.

By placing memorials on Find A Grave, it is my hope that this information will not only help others, but the records of these family cemeteries can be preserved.

Some favorites:

DEAR ANCESTOR

Your tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out
On the faded, mossy stone.

It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so.

I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you.
Author Unknown

**********************************************
Do not fret old age, it is a gift that has been denied to many.
**********************************************

MOTTO TO LIVE BY
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"

- Hunter S. Thompson
************************************************
THE STORY TELLERS
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 story tellers of the tribe.