Thanksgiving 2007 - my sister was reading a letter written by my father's Great Aunt Helen...."she was a bride, a mother and a corpse by age 17....so young". We were spellbound, and when my mother said "and I don't know anything about my family!", I took up the challenge and have become immersed and obsessed since that time. I only recently found "Find-a-Grave" which enabled me to connect to my GG Grandmother's brother's family - solid Illinois farmers from Wurttemburg! Being a California girl, that's amazing.Somehow matching names with graves & monuments has become meaningful to me - perhaps the historical perspective?Thank all of you who have taken pictures or recorded graves that exist all over the US - I wish I could visit in person but you have made it possible to envision people, places and times that have been part of my family heritage.

Thanksgiving 2007 - my sister was reading a letter written by my father's Great Aunt Helen...."she was a bride, a mother and a corpse by age 17....so young". We were spellbound, and when my mother said "and I don't know anything about my family!", I took up the challenge and have become immersed and obsessed since that time. I only recently found "Find-a-Grave" which enabled me to connect to my GG Grandmother's brother's family - solid Illinois farmers from Wurttemburg! Being a California girl, that's amazing.Somehow matching names with graves & monuments has become meaningful to me - perhaps the historical perspective?Thank all of you who have taken pictures or recorded graves that exist all over the US - I wish I could visit in person but you have made it possible to envision people, places and times that have been part of my family heritage.