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| Find A Grave Success Stories | |
| 50,000 people a day are searching the Find A Grave database! We are constantly hearing positive feedback from these people and we have created this page to share some of their encouraging comments. These messages should really be addressed to the entire Find A Grave community of contributors since they are the ones who have made this the biggest burial database in the world! | |
May 1, 2002 Dear Find A Grave: I had no sooner walked into the office today when my mother and her assistant showed me the prompt attention that you had paid to my mother's request a few days ago. I wanted to add my thanks to theirs. It has been extremely frustrating and often fruitless to get changes in mistaken information posted about my brother on the Internet. It makes it so much easier when we meet people such as yourself, who are as anxious as we are to have only correct information at their Internet site. I also have to say that I think 'Find A Grave' is an excellent concept-I visited the sites for my brother and father and and am touched and moved by the messages I discovered there. So many of [name witheld]'s fans wish to pay their respects to him, yet are unable to do so, and your site makes that possible for them. I also admire the way that you maintain the sites, as in not allowing profane or disrespectful messages to remain. In addition, I admire the anonymity with which people are able to visit each site. Very often, my mother and I have been unable to leave messages at our family's actual gravesites because of vandals and people who pocket them for memorabilia. Our actual visits are also often difficult because of spectators, etc. Your website allows us the opportunity to pay the private visits we cannot do in real life. Keep up the good work! Sincerely, [name witheld] June 26, 2001 I LOVE you site. My families' graves are several hundred miles away, but through Find A Grave I can leave a note anytime. It is wonderful. For as long as I can remember my family has roamed old cemeteries. They are an interesting source of history. Not to mention the genealogical information available there. I have come to realize that more and more people share my interest. -[name withheld] June 20, 2001 I was reading through your success stories and decided to share mine with you. My aunt was killed in a freak gas pipeline explosion in Texas in 1973. With her was her 28 day old son. I was only 4 years old when this happened so I never had the chance to meet or know my aunt or cousin. As I stumbled across your website, I found her grave in which her son is buried with her. Needless to say, because of your site and the ability to send flowers and messages I feel that a connection has been made with my aunt and cousin. Your site is a wonderful resource which helped me find answers to my questions; which in turn helped me mend "the holes in my heart" where my aunt was concerned. Thanks again and keep adding those names. -[name withheld] April 20, 2001 I want to Thank You, for all that you have done for not only us genealogist, but for family members. I have recommended your site to a great many people, and they all have reported to me of their gratitude. This really belongs to all of you at Find a Grave. Sincerely, [name witheld] May 7, 2001 Thank you so very much for giving me, and everyone else for that matter, a place to visit our loved ones. Though I may be in another state and unable to visit my brother, I can always visit the online site I created for him on your web site. And I've noticed that this web site is rapidly becoming a place where we can honor our Veterans. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate that. Thank you again. -[name withheld] March 21, 2000 To whom it may concern, GOD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR SITE FOR FINDING GRAVES!!!!! Thanks to you I have found my mother's grave. I was raised in a foster home and never knew my mother and I can't express in words how much this means to me. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!! -[name withheld] March 26, 2000 To Find A Grave, I imagine it must be a lot of non-glamorous work to log these names and sites. If you ever wonder if it is worth it, well I thank you! When I was in the Army, my roommate and I switched flights coming back from overseas. His plane crashed and everyone aboard died. We were really close. Buy the time they identified all the bodies, I was transferred to Korea and never got to attend his funeral. I knew he was buried in the Louisville area but I did not know where, until tonight. Thanks for your work. I now get to visit an old friend tomorrow... -[name withheld] March 14, 2000 Dear findagrave researchers, After 35 years, I have finally located my biological mother's date of death and her burial place. Thank you so much!! Keep up the good work!! -[name withheld] April 21, 2000 To Find A Grave, I am so grateful for this site. I never really knew my dad and when he passed away 9 years ago I couldn't get any information about where he was buried from his sister other than he had died. Thanks to your site I now know where my dad's remains are located. Thank you so much. -[name withheld] June 3, 2000 Dear Find A Grave, I found my grandparents and aunt in your database. All I can say is thank you, thank you very much. This is a very nice thing you're doing for people. I'm sure it's alot of work to record all those names and I just want you to know that I appreciate it...it has really helped my genealogy research. Thanks again! -[name withheld] August 27, 2000 Dear Friends at Find A Grave, Having been given the opportunity to list the names of so many departed loved ones has added to my already keen sense of appreciation for the areas related to genealogy. [Find A Grave] has enriched my appreciation for the past, and for those who have gone before me. I offer you a very sincere THANK YOU! -[name withheld] March 15, 2000 Greetings, Thank you for your efforts in Find a Grave. I have been searching for Leihy ancestors for many years with great difficulty, as there are very few of us left. I did find the grave of one of my ancestors. Keep up the good work. Again, thank you. -[name withheld] April 17, 2000 Hello, I just wanted to thank you very much for helping my family locate the grave of my brother. He was cremated in 1993 and his wife kept the ashes at their home. She later remarried and moved away without telling us of her new location. After trying numerous ways to contact her and getting nowhere we thought we would never know what happened to my brother's ashes. While researching on the internet I accidently came across Findagrave.com and I typed in my last name and hit search...I couldn't believe it. There was my brother's name and the cemetery and plot number where he was interred. Although his wife never told us what she did...thanks to Findagrave.com we found him. This site is a blessing. Please continue to add names and cemeteries so that others can find the peace of mind that we did. God Bless You, -[name withheld] May 30, 2000 Dear Find A Grave, I am very thankful for your web site. I have always held my great-grandfather in high regard and now, due to your site, have been able to memorialize him in my own way. Thank you very much. -[name withheld] June 16, 2000 Hi Find A Grave, Yesterday evening I was doing some geneology work and came across this site. I had been trying to locate a death certificate for my children's father. We lost contact with him in 1986 and found out about two years ago that he had died in 1989, but the SS Admin couldn't tell us where. I simply put his name into your expanded site and was thrilled to find him there. My daughter and I would have spent a lot of time and money searching each state for a death certificate. We can now go directly to the state where he died and get a copy of his death certificate. This has given my daughter a very personal sense of relief. We can now notify his family that we have found him and hold a memorial service. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS WONDERFUL DATA BASE! -[name withheld] June 19, 2000 To Whom It May Concern, I owe you, as owners of the website FIND A GRAVE, a sincere debt of thanks and gratitude for allowing me to finally get some closure on both of my sons deaths. Today, I added them to the listing of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Auburn, Maine. I never did have the opportunity to go to their funerals, because of a bitter divorce with their mother. AND today I had the chance to have my own private ceremony and finally get the closure that I needed to have. I live in Florida, and it was a friend of mine who lives in maine during the summers and went from Falmouth to Auburn to get the pictures for me. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. -[name withheld] West Palm Beach, FL June 22, 2000 Dear Find A Grave, I Must say WOW!!!!! I have been visiting your site, I guess since the beginning, I enjoyed looking up the famous, the largest etc...I have been without a computer for a few months, new one today, needless to say,, you have improved greatly!!! I love the fact that this will be a tool for persons to do research on ancestry, being I moved out of my home state, I spoke to my mother minutes ago, and we will be adding our family to your site, how wonderful!!! I plan on putting as many photos as I have, and the fact that you can leave a note ect...Family historys can be forever recorded here, I'm just...WOW!!!!! Thank you for such a wonderful site!!!! -[name withheld] July 4, 2000 Greetings... I would like to thank you for having this site on the net. It is a comfort to me that I was able to put my parents on it and be able to visit even when I can't go to the cemetary itself. You are all very kind and thoughtful people giving a place for us to remember ou loved ones. Thank You and God Bless. Sincerely, -[name withheld] July 31, 2000 Your site is amazing for me and my friends. I just left flowers at the site of a grandmother I never met! And I'm learning all about history as I get lost accessing your records. USA Today's praise is well earned. Thank You. -[name withheld] January 30, 2003 Sent to a Find A Grave contributor: OH MY GOODNESS, You must be my angel. I am still going trough the site and I just found another Great Aunt you recorded. From the [name witheld] Family. I am so sad that I missed her as I have been looking for [name witheld]'s of my family. She died 4/2002 according to your recording. But I see there is a sister alive so I am going to try her. When you put your coat on, don't hide those wings. ~smiles, [name witheld] January 6, 2003 I just wanted to thank you for Find A Grave. Because of your idea to do this and the kindness of letting people like myself add a listing free it has helped many people with their pain of losing a loved one feel better. I set up a memorial for my only child who died last year. He has been listed here for only 3 months and what beautiful E-mails and many messages at his memorial I have read and received. There are about 40 notes and I have received many E-mails as well. I want to say that all the notes that have been listed at my sons site have made me feel that it was very worthwhile to do this. Thanks Find A Grave for making this possible. -[name withheld] February 18, 2003 Dear Find a Grave, Your site is wonderful to say the least. I have placed over 260 memorials since joining last summer and it has been very rewarding to place a permanent memorial for my family members, especially one of my relatives who was washed over the ship crossing the Atlantic. I also am especially honored to remember my family members who were veterans and so touched when others have left flags at the site. Through your site I have found four living cousins and through them have placed in my family tree eight generations of my Runyon family and 4 generations of my Shultz family. I've also had a couple of living family reunions with relatives I never knew I had. Thank you for providing such a wonderful service. [name withheld] February 18, 2003 Dear folks thank you so very much for making this service available to people. Our 17 year old son was killed two years ago in a car accident and a dear friend somehow found this site and set up a memorial site for our [name witheld]. I know that many of this friends have a hard time going to his grave site but they will be able to visit this web site whenever they want. Thank once again for this service. Sincerely yours, [name withheld] August 27, 2000 Hello. Danville National Cemetery!! Today would have been his 81st birthday had he lived on...When I found your site and you had Dad listed I really broke down...a GOOD break-down though, a real cathartic moment and a cry that I needed! Thanks for whay you're doing...Don't even KNOW ya and I love ya! Take care now! Love and peace, -[name withheld] Feb 13, 2007 Dear Find A Grave, Sometime back my wife and I added some photos of various graves to Find A Grave, and last week we received a note from a viewer asking why we added one particular grave of a person in a national cemetery. We told her about our respect for our country's deceased and our desire to honor them. Her response, which is why I share this with you, says it all. She replied: As his daughter, which he never knew, may I say thank you for your kindness? Back in November, I was able to visit the cemetery!!!! I found it comforting to view, in person, what I had seen online....Thanks to you and your efforts!!!!!!!! Your 'hobby' as well as your desire to honor others....brought deep emotion as well as assisted with closer on my part! Again I THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! This is why I think Find A Grave is one of the best web sites on the internet. Thank you all for the work you do. Best wishes, [name witheld] June 13, 2006 Thank you find a grave for all the work you do. I have had much support here with the passing of my family members and now I finally feel like I can help others in their time of need. On June 10, 2006 I received and email from a long lost brother, we have not seen him since 1981. I had been looking for him for over ten years, all over the web. He told me he had put our last name in the search bar and was lead right to find a grave. He then was able to email me because he found my email address on my bio page. I am so so excited!! Thank You, Thank You everyone at Find A Grave. With much respect, [name witheld] September 14, 2006 Dear Find A Grave When My Mother was A young Girl in Texas in the Early 1920s, Her best friend was Murdered , Mom talked about her often . When I found Findagrave I entered Her Info In findagrave . About 4 months later I was contacted by [a find a grave contributor] who agreeded to Search for the Gravesite .We Didn't know which Cemetery she was Buried in, However thanks to [the contributor]'s determination We now know where she is buried and we also have a Photo of her Headstone. Without Find A Grave we would never had gotten this . Thank You So Much [name witheld]--Findagrave Member January 22, 2006 Dear Find A Grave, I have been a member for only four days and already have success stories. I was able to locate the grave and see the tombstone of a great, great grandfather buried in California. Since I live in Kansas, this probably wouldn't have happened any other way. I posted the grave information for an aunt and uncle buried in Oregon and requested photos of their burial site. I had a response from a Find A Grave volunteer within minutes and the pictures that I had requested the same day. I have connected with a 'cousin' in Florida and we have been able to exchange information on a common ancestor. I have been posting cemetery information and photos as fast as I can to share with others. But as one of your other success stories said, it is a comfort to be able to set up these memorials and visit them when I can't go to these cemeteries. Thank you so much for this site. [name witheld] January 24, 2006 Here is my Find A Grave Success Story. It was nothing short of miraculous. My maternal grandfather was [name witheld]. He passed away before I was even born. I never heard any of the family discuss his background. My mother was a little girl when he died and they were very close but I never heard about his parents... I didn't get interested in my family tree until after my parents had passed away and most all the others who would have known any names had passed on, also. My aunt was the only one left but she said it was like a big dark secret about his family and she didn't know a thing. My niece started sending for records from Mich. and she could never turn anything up. It just seemed like he was from outer space. Then one day I saw the 'Find A Grave' web site and decided to put the [name witheld] name in for what it was worth. There were only a handful so I thought 'this is going to go nowhere!' I saw a [name witheld] who was buried in Bay City. I emailed the person who entered it. I gave her all the history I had on my grandfather, which wasn't much, and I got an email back that read 'Your grandfather and my grandfather were brothers!' I squeeled so loud my husband nearly had a heart attack! I could not believe my good fortune. I ended up getting the whole family history, many family pictures from this cousin and from her niece and even an 8x10 of my grandparents wedding picture. We have been writing ever since. It would never have happened if I had not discovered Find A Grave and entered that name! Thank you so much for such a wonderful site! -[name witheld] October 13, 2003 Hi: I can't tell you how touched I am by your service .. it has inspired me to really get on the ball to do my family tree, as I found so many of my family members at your site. I even found a person that's related to me, whom I had the wrong email address for and through your site was able to contact. How exciting. I hope to add more names of family members to your site. My mother just died three months ago and she was cremated. However, I feel now I have a place to add flowers to her grave without the horrible pain, for me, of cemetaries. Thank you so much for this touching site, You are to be commended and a very beautiful soul! [name witheld] Los Angeles, California July 2, 2006 I stumbled across your photographs quite by accident. I have read the reasons that you say you photograph the grave sites of veterans, but I bet you never guessed that you would one day be giving 2 grown women the only photographic memory they would ever have of their Father. Allow me to explain. While in Alaska, at Fort Richardson Cemetery you took a picture of [name witheld]'s gravestone...last night while researching the Nicole Brown Simpson murder's with one of my daughters I came across an icon to click on to see her grave site and since it is fairly close to our home I was curious and clicked on it which lead me to 'find a grave' and eventually to my Father's grave site picture. You see my parents divorced when my sister and I were 2 and 3 yrs old, my mom disappeared with us girls remarried and never looked back. She also destroyed all photos of our Dad, who we just found out early this yearr died in 2002 without us ever finding him. Your picture of his headstone, weird as it may seem is all we have of him, so to look at it in the picture you took and finally after 40 some odd years of wondering we now know that he is at rest and we can see where. So, thank you for giving us something tangible to hold and look at of our long lost Father. Sincerely, [name witheld] January 10, 2005 Dear [Find A Grave Contributor] Thank you so much for adding my uncle [name witheld] to the find a grave site... My Uncle's name on the find a grave site was probably the only thing I've been able to find on my family on the internet. Your contribution is greatly appreciated. -[name witheld] December 20, 2004 Dear [Find A Grave Contributor] I just came across a listing you posted for [name witheld] who is buried in the Philippines. He was my Uncle and I knew he died during WWII and that he was buried in the Philippines but, up until now, I hadn't been able to find his death date. Thanks to you, I now have that information. Thank you for taking the time to research and post information. Hope you have a Merry Christmas...you just gave me an invaluable Christmas present. Sincerely, -[name witheld] January 1, 2005 I want you guys and gals to know how very much 'Find a Grave' means to me and, I'm quite sure, others. I have been doing Genealogy for the past twenty plus years, (but only the last few years by way of computer), I am a senior citizen now, on a fixed income and can no longer get out to do my research. I have become very disgusted with some of the genealogy sites that started out as 'free' to help and are now charging terrible fees to join in order to view records. Some of these records were put on line by the very ones who now have to pay to view them. You are doing a wonderful thing in helping us. I found my grandparents' graves on your site, with photos of the headstones. You will never know what that has meant to me. I've also found great-great Aunts and Uncles. I have added 7 graves myself onto your site, with photos of headstones; I've been able to add flowers, as well as tributes for the family veterans. Again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Keep it up and God bless you all! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! My best to you, -[name witheld] June 6, 2002 Subject: MOH marker--thanks to you!!! I'm getting a marker for an unmarked Medal Of Honor recipient in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, MO!! They have 4 MOH's in the cemetery, but John Tracy (aka Henry Nabers) is the only one without a headstone. I wanted to try & get a marker for him, so I talked to the people in the office. They called me yesterday to tell me that the cemetery would pay for the setting of the stone, so all I have to do now is get the paperwork submitted!!! If it wasn't for FindAGrave, I probably wouldn't have discovered that he was buried in Calvary & he might have remained unmarked forever!!! -[name witheld] | |
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