Genealogy Spree

My cousin Judy came over from Chicago to do genealogical research and we hit a gold mine everywhere we went. It helped that she has this magic laptop with all of her fabulous research entered into it. Everywhere we went she could just bring up the info she already had and tie it into the new info we were finding everywhere.

We've managed to stand at the graves of our great-grandparents, our grandparents, several great-great grandparents and a great-great-great grandmother. We also found random things like a framed paper napkin with our grandmother's name on it from 1908. She had attended a class party. We found a stack of obits in local newspapers and found out that a great-grandfather and a great-great grandfather had been well-known for their singing abilities.

It's been completely amazing to find out all of these facts and realize that our ancestors in some cases were pretty important people around here. The downside is that of the fifty-plus graves of family members at Fern Knoll Cemetery, just up the road from my house, maybe ten are in good shape. The rest are buried and Michael and I will have a nice outing in the spring with shovels digging out the brass and marble plaques that are completely overgrown.

The first photo is of the plots in Fern Knoll where many more of my ancestors are buried than I believed possible. More on that strange story in the next post. The second picture, sadly, is all that you can see of my grandmother Florence's grave. It has been completely covered by pine needles and hemlock needles. So cleaning up all the family graves is a project I will complete when it stops snowing (maybe next April.)