*** People are only forgotten if no one ever knew they existed***

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Q9AX-RKQU/

If someone had told me that I would be volunteering to help people that I do not even know in December 1 2018 on Find A Grave I would have laughed. Well the road to Find A Grave started at a garage sale in October of 2018. My wife Sandy said she wanted to stop at a garage sale on the way to the House of David old time baseball game. When we went in there was a table full of boxes of old glass plates. I have been a photographer since the 1960's and had never seen a glass plate photo's. When I started looking at the plates it was looking at a negative on glass that was crystal clear. They had over 140+ at $2.00 each. I did not even know if I could scan one so I picked one out and told the women that owned them if nobody bought them to give me a call after the sale. She did three days later and I got all but about three or four that sold individually for $20.00. To make a long story shorter these were the family photo's of Joseph and Laura (Durkee) Emerson from 1905 to about 1928 Benton Harbor Michigan. Is also included Laura's family Durkee and Ames. Search my files and you will see I have posted about five photo's of each member to their Find A Grave memorials. I researched and documented their family's history thru Newspapers.com at the local and national level. Then one day in a search Find A Grave showed up with their name and the rest is history. I signed up just to add their information and photo' and now it has become almost addictive. Because of my access to the local newspapers and national papers I have been suggesting edits on people that I have no relationship to or knowledge of past or present. If I suggest an edit always look in the photo section of that memorial because I post the news stories, Obits an or death certificates of that individual and photo's if there online. Before you reject an suggested edit contact me first. If you are reading this I hope I have answered most of your questions. I recently have been colorizing the Emerson family photos & also many others I find on FAG in my research. Jim

Dear Ancestor
Your tombstone stands among the rest;
neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out
on polished, marbled stone
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn
You did not know that I'd exist
You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
in flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
entirely not our own.
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
one hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
and come to visit you.

The author is Walter Butler Palmer (1906)

*** People are only forgotten if no one ever knew they existed***

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Q9AX-RKQU/

If someone had told me that I would be volunteering to help people that I do not even know in December 1 2018 on Find A Grave I would have laughed. Well the road to Find A Grave started at a garage sale in October of 2018. My wife Sandy said she wanted to stop at a garage sale on the way to the House of David old time baseball game. When we went in there was a table full of boxes of old glass plates. I have been a photographer since the 1960's and had never seen a glass plate photo's. When I started looking at the plates it was looking at a negative on glass that was crystal clear. They had over 140+ at $2.00 each. I did not even know if I could scan one so I picked one out and told the women that owned them if nobody bought them to give me a call after the sale. She did three days later and I got all but about three or four that sold individually for $20.00. To make a long story shorter these were the family photo's of Joseph and Laura (Durkee) Emerson from 1905 to about 1928 Benton Harbor Michigan. Is also included Laura's family Durkee and Ames. Search my files and you will see I have posted about five photo's of each member to their Find A Grave memorials. I researched and documented their family's history thru Newspapers.com at the local and national level. Then one day in a search Find A Grave showed up with their name and the rest is history. I signed up just to add their information and photo' and now it has become almost addictive. Because of my access to the local newspapers and national papers I have been suggesting edits on people that I have no relationship to or knowledge of past or present. If I suggest an edit always look in the photo section of that memorial because I post the news stories, Obits an or death certificates of that individual and photo's if there online. Before you reject an suggested edit contact me first. If you are reading this I hope I have answered most of your questions. I recently have been colorizing the Emerson family photos & also many others I find on FAG in my research. Jim

Dear Ancestor
Your tombstone stands among the rest;
neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out
on polished, marbled stone
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn
You did not know that I'd exist
You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
in flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
entirely not our own.
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
one hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
and come to visit you.

The author is Walter Butler Palmer (1906)