Our family history is important. I am now retired and have the time to research and photograph my family and yours. I personally walk the cemeteries and try to fill in the blanks. I don't make a Memorial simply by reading the obituaries. I have physically seen it (except for a very few) and go from there. On occasion, while looking for information on my family members, I might come by obituaries that haven't been added and I will add them. I spend time researching the family member and try to connect to other family members. I have made some exciting discoveries.
************
I am certainly not perfect and if I have made a duplicate, send me a message. If I have made a mistake somewhere, please let me know!
I will gladly transfer a memorial to family members. Just ask!
************
If I am kind enough to take a picture for you and you don't like it, then you can politely ask me to remove it and take your own. If I have taken a picture of a temporary marker, I will try to replace it with permanent headstone picture. I have noticed though, that many of them don't get replaced in a timely fashion or ever!
************
I was born in Illinois and moved to Texas in the fourth grade and lived their my entire life up until a few years ago. I now live in NC. I have family ties in Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, W Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and a few other areas scattered East.
************
My love of genealogy, comes from my Father RGM and my paternal Grandmother Caroline. I am a member of the DAR with direct ties to at least 6 Revolutionary War Patriots.
************
Most of my Memorials come from local cemeteries for people I don't even know, but am close enough to walk the cemeteries in hope of helping family that are no longer in the area.

***************

I'm just putting this out there - if you are "managing" 250,000 memorials and about 5% were yours originally, you are in it for the NUMBERS. I will pick up some that are being managed by FAG, but they are usually in cemeteries that I am very familiar with or have surnames that I have in my family, or some that are basically empty and need some love.

Also- if you have added 15,000 memorials and only 400 pictures, you're just sitting your behind in a chair while the rest of us are out taking all the pictures! AND, if you're going to add a memorial, give it a little love. The empty ones drive me crazy, esp when the headstone is of a husband and wife and you can't even bother to connect them.

I don't add death certificates, but I do add photos of old obituaries if I come across them. They are full of so much information and I believe this is so helpful to family members that aren't computer savvy or have paid memberships to ancestry sites.

Transfers don't have to be difficult! I recently asked for a transfer for my great uncle from someone who is not even related to him and she refuses to transfer him. I'll work on this at a later date.

From Findagrave -
Our transfer guidelines include these close relationships: child, spouse/partner, sibling, parent, grandchild, great-grandchild, grandparent, great-grandparent, niece/nephew, great-niece/nephew, aunt/uncle, great-aunt/uncle, or first cousin.
If the memorial in question is a relative to you (within our transfer guidelines) and the memorial manager is not family, then they must transfer the memorial.

Taken from another site -----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.To me, 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. All tribes have one.We have been called 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 they fought to make and keep us a Nation.It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. 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 them and they are us. So, as a scribe is 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 their place in the long line of family storytellers.That is why I do genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.

*************

Please don't make memorials for the living!

Our family history is important. I am now retired and have the time to research and photograph my family and yours. I personally walk the cemeteries and try to fill in the blanks. I don't make a Memorial simply by reading the obituaries. I have physically seen it (except for a very few) and go from there. On occasion, while looking for information on my family members, I might come by obituaries that haven't been added and I will add them. I spend time researching the family member and try to connect to other family members. I have made some exciting discoveries.
************
I am certainly not perfect and if I have made a duplicate, send me a message. If I have made a mistake somewhere, please let me know!
I will gladly transfer a memorial to family members. Just ask!
************
If I am kind enough to take a picture for you and you don't like it, then you can politely ask me to remove it and take your own. If I have taken a picture of a temporary marker, I will try to replace it with permanent headstone picture. I have noticed though, that many of them don't get replaced in a timely fashion or ever!
************
I was born in Illinois and moved to Texas in the fourth grade and lived their my entire life up until a few years ago. I now live in NC. I have family ties in Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, W Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and a few other areas scattered East.
************
My love of genealogy, comes from my Father RGM and my paternal Grandmother Caroline. I am a member of the DAR with direct ties to at least 6 Revolutionary War Patriots.
************
Most of my Memorials come from local cemeteries for people I don't even know, but am close enough to walk the cemeteries in hope of helping family that are no longer in the area.

***************

I'm just putting this out there - if you are "managing" 250,000 memorials and about 5% were yours originally, you are in it for the NUMBERS. I will pick up some that are being managed by FAG, but they are usually in cemeteries that I am very familiar with or have surnames that I have in my family, or some that are basically empty and need some love.

Also- if you have added 15,000 memorials and only 400 pictures, you're just sitting your behind in a chair while the rest of us are out taking all the pictures! AND, if you're going to add a memorial, give it a little love. The empty ones drive me crazy, esp when the headstone is of a husband and wife and you can't even bother to connect them.

I don't add death certificates, but I do add photos of old obituaries if I come across them. They are full of so much information and I believe this is so helpful to family members that aren't computer savvy or have paid memberships to ancestry sites.

Transfers don't have to be difficult! I recently asked for a transfer for my great uncle from someone who is not even related to him and she refuses to transfer him. I'll work on this at a later date.

From Findagrave -
Our transfer guidelines include these close relationships: child, spouse/partner, sibling, parent, grandchild, great-grandchild, grandparent, great-grandparent, niece/nephew, great-niece/nephew, aunt/uncle, great-aunt/uncle, or first cousin.
If the memorial in question is a relative to you (within our transfer guidelines) and the memorial manager is not family, then they must transfer the memorial.

Taken from another site -----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.To me, 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. All tribes have one.We have been called 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 they fought to make and keep us a Nation.It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. 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 them and they are us. So, as a scribe is 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 their place in the long line of family storytellers.That is why I do genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.

*************

Please don't make memorials for the living!