Veterans at the Cemetery

I love putting in-laws on my tree and my husband's tree, and really enjoy researching their lives and connections. If any were veterans, I especially want to honor their service to the country.

Last week, I was chasing some details on an in-law's family and found his Find a Grave memorial page. 

The Find a Grave volunteer who manages this memorial page (and 28,000 other memorials) encourages users to transcribe obits and submit as suggested edits.

So I transcribed the in-law's obit, which included dates/details about his World War II military service, and I submitted it as a suggested edit. At the same time, I indicated that the man was a veteran. 

One day later, the volunteer accepted my edits and also sent me the note shown at top of this blog post. "You have lots of Vet memorials that need your time. Time to concentrate on yours."

Even though I was a little taken aback at the slightly snarky tone of this volunteer's note, I took his advice. And I'm very glad I did!

Of course, I don't manage anywhere near as many Find a Grave memorials as this volunteer. Mine number under 700, actually, and many are folks (born in 1870s-1880s) whose headstones are in the same cemetery as ancestors in my family tree or my hubby's tree. Some of my memorials are for parents or children of in-laws who I added to Find a Grave in the course of my research. 

Given the age of the folks on my Find a Grave memorials, I didn't expect to find too many veterans. Many are also married women who came to the United States as adults. So I also researched their spouses, fathers, and sons if linked. That helped up my count as I checked obits, military records, and other records.

After researching all of these people, I found 36 people who served in the US military! Where information was available, I listed the branch of the military, the war, and the dates of service. 

In the case of Morris A. Dworkin, I uploaded this application for a military headstone to add to his Find a Grave memorial when I set the indicator to V for veteran.

Now the little V shows next to the names of those who served in the military, as it does on my Dad's Find a Grave memorial page (excerpt below).

"Cemetery" is Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks genealogy prompt for Week 40.

Stories in Stone - VGA Book Club Pick

The Virtual Genealogical Association has so much to offer, for only $20 per year. The name says it all: All virtual, all the time, including informative webinars (live and on-demand), special interest groups and hangouts, even a book club.

This month, you don't have to be a member of the Virtual Genealogical Association to join the fun with the book club pick, Stories in Stone by Douglas Keister. 

The subtitle previews what's inside: A field guide to cemetery symbolism and iconography. From architecture to gravestone symbols and beyond, this compact but comprehensive book is indispensable for genealogy folks. 

Full-color photos illustrate so many of the key points, with clear explanations. In addition to an extensive index, this handy book includes pages and pages of acronyms deciphered, a big help when trying to understand organizational initials and symbols on gravestones.  

No wonder I have this book at hand for ready reference and to accompany me on any cemetery field trips.

Now VGA is hosting a contest in connection with the July book club. Mark your calendar: The book club meets virtually on Tuesday, July 26th, at 8 pm Eastern. See you there!

Where the Bodies Are Buried, Part 1

Do descendants know where their ancestors are buried? 

When I began my genealogy journey in 1998, I wanted to know where and when my paternal grandfather had died and where he was buried. He died long before I was born, and there was no one to ask (and no paperwork) by the time I was interested. 

Along with researching and sharing information about ancestors, I've now realized I need to share specific information about burial places. Maybe descendants will want to visit in the future. At the very least, they should be aware of the cemeteries (and if possible, the plots) where our ancestors are buried. I really don't want this information to be lost to the next generation and beyond.

This is Part 1 of a series of my blog posts about "Where the bodies are buried."

Find a Grave's virtual cemetery 

Because I've been adding or enhancing memorials for ancestors on the free Find a Grave website for years, it's surprisingly easy to assign individuals to a virtual cemetery of my own making. On Find a Grave, a virtual cemetery is just what it sounds like: an online-only gathering of burial memorials put together by one registered user.

My idea is to have one virtual cemetery for each side of my family tree. Each memorial has detailed info about where the ancestor is buried, sometimes including plots and even grave numbers. In many cases, I've added photos and/or documents. As a result, all I have to do is assign each memorial to a virtual cemetery. This will become a one-stop online place for alerting descendants about "where the bodies are buried."

Easy instructions

You must be registered on Find a Grave to create a virtual cemetery. Registration is free, and once you're signed in, it takes just a few clicks to create a virtual cemetery. Click here for Find a Grave's directions. 

I've also created a virtual cemetery without even leaving an ancestor's Find a Grave memorial. See the screen shot at top, of the memorial I created for my grandmother's baby brother who died young. When I clicked the button "+save to" (see red circle), up popped a box asking me to either add this memorial to an existing virtual cemetery or create a new virtual cemetery. 

Describe the virtual cemetery (and make public or private)

As shown above, I named my paternal virtual cemetery "Burk and Mahler Family Memorials" and listed the matriarchs and patriarchs. Below the description are all the memorials currently included in this particular virtual cemetery. You can't see Wolf Mahler, but he's on the list. I chose to make this public, but have the option to make it a private virtual cemetery. I can send the link to my relatives when I've added more names. You can take a peek at this virtual cemetery in progress here.

To find my virtual cemetery at any time, all I do is sign into Find a Grave and then look at my profile page. On the right are my virtual cemeteries (one for mom's side, one for dad's side). One by one, little by little, I'm adding memorials to these virtual cemeteries and then in the future, I'll be ready to email my relatives with the links. The next generation and beyond will know what I had to discover on my own--where our ancestors are buried.

PS Especially where ancestors had no direct descendants (bachelor uncles, for instance), I hope to keep their memory alive by including them in my virtual cemeteries.

PPS After reading Dara's comment below, I am adding a link to the Burk/Mahler virtual cemetery on my Burk and Mahler ancestor landing pages here on the blog. Same for my Farkas ancestors. TY to Dara for the idea!

Graves and Obits Online 2022 update

The Ancestor Hunt has links to obituaries and BMD records--for free! Plus downloadable (free) guides showing how to search. A highly recommended site for 2022 and beyond.

Of course Find A Grave is well-known for grave memorials. I found many of hubby's ancestors in Ohio cemeteries listed on Find a Grave, complete with photos of cemetery and plots. Also I've been linking my ancestors to their relatives with memorial pages, and requesting to be the manager of ancestral memorial pages.

Plus Family Search, Ancestry, and MyHeritage have links to obits and more. I'm using them all to search out info about my ancestors.