Common sense and courtesy 'tips the scale' that a person should include a credit by-line of any work that is not YOUR original creation. You can let me know my effort has helped you, but a message is not absolutely necessary.

All that said, please feel free to use any of my photos to enhance your family research projects!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Am I a memorial hoarder? I get many requests for memorial transfers, some with only a statement that "I am a relative" with no further explanation about related how, but more importantly, why is a transfer really required in the first place. If your purpose is to build a 'Family Tree' this is not the goal of this website. Please consider creating virtual cemeteries to collect your family and relatives.

I update memorials daily. I include source references. I correct errors, I scan and restore photographs, I wore holes in my pants from kneeing above stones and trimming overgrowth. I have mosquito bites. I have wiped buckets of sweat from my head and been sunburned. I have filled the car with gasoline and driven more miles than I want to acknowledge. I have enjoyed every minute of my work.

I also am the leader of the historical society cemetery project. Our team goal is to bring the society's extensive holdings online for everyone to enjoy for free. This project is never finished because new (old) information is continuously being discovered and added to the memorials.

In that context, memorial transfers actually get in the way of our work. When I transfer a memorial to someone else, additional steps are needed when new biographical information is discovered. I must now send a message to the new manager and "hope" they have the time, energy, enthusiasm, dedication, and desire to add more information to a memorial. I also have to periodically check to see if that information was actually added, taking away valuable time. A pet-peeve of mine is when I provide source documentation it is simply discarded at the whim of a 'non-genealogist' who deems it unimportant to cite the source of the information.

I have sent too many updates that have gone unfulfilled that I am now very reluctant to transfer memorials. Sorry. New people discover Find-A-Grave, become interested for a day, a week, or a month and then apparently disappear from the face of the planet.

I will work with you, directly (using the EDIT tab on any memorial) and make updates and corrections you provide. I will double-check my local sources and might be able to add even more information. Sometimes a conclusion can be made that "this is the wrong John Anderson", avoiding errors which can lead other researchers astray.

If you "absolutely, positively, need management of a memorial", please provide a compelling reason when asking for a transfer. I do follow the Find-A-Grave guidelines, and sometimes outside those guidelines. Most of all, thank you for your understanding. I look forward to working with people who also want to improve the accuracy of the information that is being collected and offered on this website.

Yes, the scope of work within Chisago County on this website goes beyond the basic Find A Grave mission of recording cemetery markers. Our goal is to make it known which specific "John Anderson" is being memorialized and to provide the source information that supports that determination.

And finally, thanks for enduring my 'rant'!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

How I got started: During the springs of 2000 and 2001 my wife and I toured parts of Europe and visited the birthplace, ancestral villages and descendants of my paternal great grandfather's family (Jan Czudek & Zuzanna Szmekova). This reunion closed a 93-year gap of my paternal family history.

During our trip to the eastern areas of the Czech Republic we visited the Kosariska cemetery to view the interment of my ancestors. I made notes of names and dates and took a couple of pictures. I decided to photograph a few of the other markers because the interment customs were different from back home. Before I knew it I was systematically photographing all the headstones at that cemetery. Looking back, this was the beginning of my graving hobby!

Upon returning to the USA I created a website and transcribed the names and dates from all my photographs. Eight years later I discovered the Find A Grave site where biographies and photos could be stored. I decided to create the Kosariska cemetery, upload my records, write a cemetery biography, and scan my original photographs. That project was completed in the spring of 2008 and the Kosariska, CZ pictures and interments are now online.

What I am doing now: I now concentrate my research where I live, primarily within Chisago County, Minnesota. All of the county cemeteries are represented on Find A Grave with their correct names, AKA's, gate photos, and GPS coordinates. There are no missing cemeteries. This link will take you to the complete listing:

Chisago County, MN cemetery list


All 42 Chisago County cemeteries have their transcriptions online as of 1-Aug-2013.

Work continues in order to bring unmarked grave information online. These unknown burials can often be identified when auditing the official records held by a cemetery association and comparing their information to the posted Find-A-Grave memorials.

Local volunteers are transcribing obituaries, researching family links, and posting photographs to the memorials, helping to unite the families and provide sourced information to the memorials.

Many stone and monument photographs are waiting in queue and are being uploaded as time permits.

Other background: I am a member of the Board of Directors of the Chisago County Historical Society which holds a variety of uncirculated resource materials in addition to microfilms of area newspapers, township records, census records, and other public data. Visit the CCHS website Research Library page to review indexes of our various holdings.

My personal goal of my participation in the Find A Grave website is for my contributions to preserve history and help others who are pursuing their family genealogy, either now or in the future.

Common sense and courtesy 'tips the scale' that a person should include a credit by-line of any work that is not YOUR original creation. You can let me know my effort has helped you, but a message is not absolutely necessary.

All that said, please feel free to use any of my photos to enhance your family research projects!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Am I a memorial hoarder? I get many requests for memorial transfers, some with only a statement that "I am a relative" with no further explanation about related how, but more importantly, why is a transfer really required in the first place. If your purpose is to build a 'Family Tree' this is not the goal of this website. Please consider creating virtual cemeteries to collect your family and relatives.

I update memorials daily. I include source references. I correct errors, I scan and restore photographs, I wore holes in my pants from kneeing above stones and trimming overgrowth. I have mosquito bites. I have wiped buckets of sweat from my head and been sunburned. I have filled the car with gasoline and driven more miles than I want to acknowledge. I have enjoyed every minute of my work.

I also am the leader of the historical society cemetery project. Our team goal is to bring the society's extensive holdings online for everyone to enjoy for free. This project is never finished because new (old) information is continuously being discovered and added to the memorials.

In that context, memorial transfers actually get in the way of our work. When I transfer a memorial to someone else, additional steps are needed when new biographical information is discovered. I must now send a message to the new manager and "hope" they have the time, energy, enthusiasm, dedication, and desire to add more information to a memorial. I also have to periodically check to see if that information was actually added, taking away valuable time. A pet-peeve of mine is when I provide source documentation it is simply discarded at the whim of a 'non-genealogist' who deems it unimportant to cite the source of the information.

I have sent too many updates that have gone unfulfilled that I am now very reluctant to transfer memorials. Sorry. New people discover Find-A-Grave, become interested for a day, a week, or a month and then apparently disappear from the face of the planet.

I will work with you, directly (using the EDIT tab on any memorial) and make updates and corrections you provide. I will double-check my local sources and might be able to add even more information. Sometimes a conclusion can be made that "this is the wrong John Anderson", avoiding errors which can lead other researchers astray.

If you "absolutely, positively, need management of a memorial", please provide a compelling reason when asking for a transfer. I do follow the Find-A-Grave guidelines, and sometimes outside those guidelines. Most of all, thank you for your understanding. I look forward to working with people who also want to improve the accuracy of the information that is being collected and offered on this website.

Yes, the scope of work within Chisago County on this website goes beyond the basic Find A Grave mission of recording cemetery markers. Our goal is to make it known which specific "John Anderson" is being memorialized and to provide the source information that supports that determination.

And finally, thanks for enduring my 'rant'!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

How I got started: During the springs of 2000 and 2001 my wife and I toured parts of Europe and visited the birthplace, ancestral villages and descendants of my paternal great grandfather's family (Jan Czudek & Zuzanna Szmekova). This reunion closed a 93-year gap of my paternal family history.

During our trip to the eastern areas of the Czech Republic we visited the Kosariska cemetery to view the interment of my ancestors. I made notes of names and dates and took a couple of pictures. I decided to photograph a few of the other markers because the interment customs were different from back home. Before I knew it I was systematically photographing all the headstones at that cemetery. Looking back, this was the beginning of my graving hobby!

Upon returning to the USA I created a website and transcribed the names and dates from all my photographs. Eight years later I discovered the Find A Grave site where biographies and photos could be stored. I decided to create the Kosariska cemetery, upload my records, write a cemetery biography, and scan my original photographs. That project was completed in the spring of 2008 and the Kosariska, CZ pictures and interments are now online.

What I am doing now: I now concentrate my research where I live, primarily within Chisago County, Minnesota. All of the county cemeteries are represented on Find A Grave with their correct names, AKA's, gate photos, and GPS coordinates. There are no missing cemeteries. This link will take you to the complete listing:

Chisago County, MN cemetery list


All 42 Chisago County cemeteries have their transcriptions online as of 1-Aug-2013.

Work continues in order to bring unmarked grave information online. These unknown burials can often be identified when auditing the official records held by a cemetery association and comparing their information to the posted Find-A-Grave memorials.

Local volunteers are transcribing obituaries, researching family links, and posting photographs to the memorials, helping to unite the families and provide sourced information to the memorials.

Many stone and monument photographs are waiting in queue and are being uploaded as time permits.

Other background: I am a member of the Board of Directors of the Chisago County Historical Society which holds a variety of uncirculated resource materials in addition to microfilms of area newspapers, township records, census records, and other public data. Visit the CCHS website Research Library page to review indexes of our various holdings.

My personal goal of my participation in the Find A Grave website is for my contributions to preserve history and help others who are pursuing their family genealogy, either now or in the future.