Oh how I wish every cemetery had the trifecta of taphophiles Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis does! Last year I spent several hours of nearly every weekend photographing headstones for Find A Grave at this beautifully landscaped 250 acre garden cemetery. At the time the Find A Grave page for Lakewood said there were a little…
Several unrelated couples in my family tree eloped from Chicago to St Joseph Michigan. One day I asked my great-uncle (his mother was 1/2 of one of those couples) why? Uncle Fran said it was a lovely beach resort community and that people would not only elope to St Joseph, but honeymoon there as well.…
Most of the headstones in Chicago’s Irving Park Cemetery are the run-of-the-mill variety one sees at many cemeteries. I took hundreds of photos for Find A Grave when I visited the cemetery in July of 2015. As I was leaving, the sun caught a large white headstone on my left. The feeling of deep loss captured in stone caused me to…
I stumbled upon a little headstone in Chicago’s Rosehill Cemetery in July 2015. I was surprised there wasn’t an existing memorial for this infant on Find A Grave. Because that little headstone is next to this: Who was Adam Schaaf? I wondered as I added a Find A Grave memorial for Baby Schaaf. A link on the baby’s…
It was a little disconcerting, but I was impressed. While I was photographing headstones for Find A Grave at Riverside Cemetery in Black River Falls Wisconsin, I was being watched. Not from afar, mind you. The same pickup truck meandered through the very sections I was in at least a dozen times in two hours. I didn’t…
Celia McNulty’s obituary was printed in the Chicago Daily News April 8, 1913: “M’NULTY-Miss Celia, Sunday night, at her residence, 930 E. 65th, aunt of Dr. Austin A. Hayden, 32 N. State st., born 1850 Shullsburg, Wis., graduate of the old Sacred Heart convent, active for many years with Mrs. Wm. A. Amberg in the…
John Gillis’ obituary appeared on page 8 of the Chicago Daily News on March 5, 1892: “GILLIS-JOHN, beloved husband of Adelaide Lee Dunbar Gillis and father of Grace and Sedric Gillis, aged 52 years. Funeral Sunday, March 6, at 2 p.m., from his late residence, 2952 S. Canal-st, by carriages to Oakwoods. We miss thee…
Adeline Eick’s obituary appeared in the Chicago Daily News on February 3, 1919: Adeline is not a leaf on my family tree, but perhaps she is a leaf on yours. I hope you’ll stop by her Find A Grave memorial and leave her some flowers. I think her family would like that.
This beautiful hexagon headstone is in Forest Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Madison Wisconsin. Six members of the extended Whitaker family are interred here. Mary Whitaker Sandford 1910-1952 Bessie Sayles Whitaker 1880-1951 Henry Charles Whitaker 1874-1930 Robert Charles Ellis Sr. 1895-1981 Dorothy Whitaker Ellis 1907-1957 and Henry Whitaker Ellis 1939-1990. All have been memorialized on Find…
I’ve been climbing my family tree since the days of writing letters and reading microfiche. And while I’m still interested in dead people, in 2015 I focused less on the ones related to me [1] and more on those buried in various Midwest cemeteries [2]. Which means my ancestors have been gathering dust. Well not them exactly, but the files…
where2look4ancestors 