I am a native of Clark County, Wisconsin with a very strong interest in Finnish and Finnish-American culture, genealogy and history. I have been researching family and local history since the 1980's and my wife and I made some very enjoyable visits to Finland as well as to Germany to explore areas where our ancestors once lived as well as visiting other historical sites.
My motivation for participating in Find a Grave is to preserve memories of those gone before us, not to be burdened by compulsively saying that the only information in the memorial MUST be on the gravestone or it is NOT allowed. Even when something is engraved into stone that does not necessarily mean it is accurate. I have found instances of years of birth and even death being incorrect as well as spellings of names. To me this is about remembering people as accurately as we can. Memorials are "managed" and not "owned"... and we all have a limited time here before we, also, are gone. Kindness and respect are good. Bitterness and being unreasonably legalistic only serve to alienate people. When you are dead and gone how do you want to be remembered?

I am a native of Clark County, Wisconsin with a very strong interest in Finnish and Finnish-American culture, genealogy and history. I have been researching family and local history since the 1980's and my wife and I made some very enjoyable visits to Finland as well as to Germany to explore areas where our ancestors once lived as well as visiting other historical sites.
My motivation for participating in Find a Grave is to preserve memories of those gone before us, not to be burdened by compulsively saying that the only information in the memorial MUST be on the gravestone or it is NOT allowed. Even when something is engraved into stone that does not necessarily mean it is accurate. I have found instances of years of birth and even death being incorrect as well as spellings of names. To me this is about remembering people as accurately as we can. Memorials are "managed" and not "owned"... and we all have a limited time here before we, also, are gone. Kindness and respect are good. Bitterness and being unreasonably legalistic only serve to alienate people. When you are dead and gone how do you want to be remembered?