My interest in family history started while on Summer vacations as a youth, spent visiting her Grandmothers (both in Washington State) and being surrounded by my many Aunts, Uncles, and cousins and all of the stories they would repeat at family gatherings. It started in earnest after I lost my mother at the age of fifteen and found in my mother's belongings hand-written notes dictating census records, for her own genealogy interests, from microfiche that she would access at local libraries and historical societies. Included in my mother's belongings were letters between herself and my Aunt discussing great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles, etc. And later in life (in my 30's), my father and his siblings were continually sharing old family photographs with me and discussing the history that they knew. This sparked my interest even more! I wanted to know who all of these people were, how they were related to me, what their lives had been like and what happened to them. Through all of my research creating my own family history, I often referred to FInd A Grave and appreciated all of the information found there contributed by others. I was finally pushed (gently!) to start contributing by another member who had helped me along the way!

My interest in family history started while on Summer vacations as a youth, spent visiting her Grandmothers (both in Washington State) and being surrounded by my many Aunts, Uncles, and cousins and all of the stories they would repeat at family gatherings. It started in earnest after I lost my mother at the age of fifteen and found in my mother's belongings hand-written notes dictating census records, for her own genealogy interests, from microfiche that she would access at local libraries and historical societies. Included in my mother's belongings were letters between herself and my Aunt discussing great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles, etc. And later in life (in my 30's), my father and his siblings were continually sharing old family photographs with me and discussing the history that they knew. This sparked my interest even more! I wanted to know who all of these people were, how they were related to me, what their lives had been like and what happened to them. Through all of my research creating my own family history, I often referred to FInd A Grave and appreciated all of the information found there contributed by others. I was finally pushed (gently!) to start contributing by another member who had helped me along the way!