I found findagrave.com a little over five years ago, and have had some great experiences with it, both giving and receiving. Here is a message I got from someone who had contacted me about transferring some memorials to her. I had taken the pictures several years ago on a visit to our friends in Cleveland, TN. Fort Hill cemetery is huge, so my photographing was completely random - or so I thought. But I believe that there is no such thing as coincidence in family history!
"My sister in law is 82. Her mom and dad divorced when she was three, about 1932. They were living in California at the time. Her father Wallace Raymond had tuberculosis and went back to Tennessee to see his family. He stopped by the house where Colleen and her mom where living to tell them he was leaving and say goodbye. I think he new how sick he was. He died in Tennessee while visiting. His family did not know how to get a hold of Ora and Colleen to tell them he had died so all these years she never really knew when or if he died. Her mom remarried and her husband adopted Colleen.
She is thrilled to finally know and knows now why he never contacted her. He died in 1933 probably just months after going home. A relative saw my family information on ancestry and put two and two together and contacted me.
Such a great thing. I am so happy for Colleen. She is thrilled and wants to know more. The family is exchanging information with her now.
Best wishes and thanks for the help. I wanted to be sure you had the whole story. This is one reason why I love genealogy."
Findagrave is populated by the best people in the world. When I ordered the tombstone for my Mother's grave, I knew it would be a long time before I would see it as I wouldn't be back in Indiana for a year or two at least. I sent in a photo request to Findagrave and it took a while but recently someone posted a photo for me.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that! :-)
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