I took a little trip to Milford today to take a couple of photos for people on www.findagrave.com.  One of the requests was for a military stone and the requester mentioned that it might just be a stone with his ancestor’s name and military information on [...]]]>

I took a little trip to Milford today to take a couple of photos for people on www.findagrave.com.  One of the requests was for a military stone and the requester mentioned that it might just be a stone with his ancestor’s name and military information on it, and that it was probably in a long row of military stones.  Wow.  Was he ever right! 

There are 165 stones in this cemetery that honor G.A.R. soldiers.  I could tell from the dates on the star that it had to do something with the Civil war, but had to look it up when I got back.  G.A.R. stands for the Grand Army of the Republic… ie: those who fought for the Union side in the Civil War.  I had no idea that there were so many of these graves here in the Nebraska countryside!  I wonder if this cemetery was “the place” to bury them?

When I set out to find the headstone I came for, I very systematically went through and photographed all of these military headstones so I could load them onto the findagrave website.  I figured it would be a good little project for me and it was my way of thanking them for their service.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a spare battery for my camera… ouch… so I was able to get all of the stones except THREE.  Ugh.  And that was before I made it over to the cemetery in Ruby, NE for another findagrave request. 

Fortunately, it was a beautiful day to spend snapping photos and I’m looking forward to my return so I can finish what I started. 

Edwin was born in Milford, Seward, Nebraska, USA and died in Marion, Oregon, USA.  It’s my understanding that he was married with kids.  Was it common back then to take someone’s body [...]]]>

I thought it would be fitting today to show you Edwin William Waits’ tombstone, since he was a major part of my day yesterday.

Edwin was born in Milford, Seward, Nebraska, USA and died in Marion, Oregon, USA.  It’s my understanding that he was married with kids.  Was it common back then to take someone’s body across country and not bury them with their spouse?  That seemed to happen a lot in my family.

I took this photo at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Ruby, Seward, Nebraska, USA on Memorial Day, 2009 and noticed that a few of my family’s graves had flowers on them.  Same thing in the Seward Cemetery.  Assuming that the visitors are cousins, I’d really like to talk to them and let them know about my research and blog and see if they want to compare notes.  Does anyone have any ideas on how I would get in touch with them?  I’ve thought about leaving a note in a ziploc next Memorial Day, but that’s nine months away.  Seems a shame to let it go that long if we live in the same area.

I spent this afternoon posting burial information on Find A Grave!  Find A Grave is a site where you can add and request photos of the headstones of your ancestors.  This comes in really helpful for genealogy research not only [...]]]>

I finally feel like I’ve accomplished something!  At least something that I can share with the world…

I spent this afternoon posting burial information on Find A Grave!  Find A Grave is a site where you can add and request photos of the headstones of your ancestors.  This comes in really helpful for genealogy research not only for the names, dates, etc… but because it’s actual physical proof that this person existed.  You can also gather clues by looking at who is buried around them and whether the headstones or last names match.

• Submitted 16 Memorials, mostly for Fleming and Wait family
• Added 18 photos, including 2 of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Ruby, NE
• Added 3 photo requests for Grandma Wait’s family
• Left virtual flowers on the online memorials, neat if you can’t visit the grave personally.
• Added 4 Virtual Cemeteries that are organized for my Wait, Fleming, Kunz, and Hartsock lines so it’s somewhat organized!
• Finished adding all of the photos that I took at Mount Pleasant Cemetery so far.
• Added myself as a photo volunteer in my area!

My experience with the site so far has been awesome!  It’s pretty intuitive.  I especially love the Quick Add feature that lets you add multiple people to the same cemetery.  I do wish there was a way to add husband/wife to the same photo instead of loading it twice.  Might save them some bandwidth and storage space. 

I still have a bunch of photos from the Seward Cemetery in Seward NE and the Elmwood Cemetery in Elmwood NE.  I figure I’ll just go through them methodically and get them entered one at a time.  I hope you’ll check the site out and let me know what you think about it!

This stone is placed between a Mother and Father WAIT in the Seward Cemetery, NE.  I took a picture of it, but don’t even know if it’s a tombstone.  It would be helpful if [...]]]>

This stone is placed between a Mother and Father WAIT in the Seward Cemetery, NE.  I took a picture of it, but don’t even know if it’s a tombstone.  It would be helpful if it wasn’t broken and I could read the full text.

What do you think it is?