Hi, I'm Amy!

I have been doing gene research for several years and have an extensive tree on Ancestry.com. My kin come mainly from the Northeast, Canada, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. I am a Maker, a Parker, a Harvey, a Heath and a Kemp. I have extensive roots in Cutler, ME and Merrimack, NH.

I love wandering old places and especially graveyards. One's name may never have been written previously or since, one's life never recorded other than the engraving on the stone.

"To gather up the records of the past and present, and faithfully transmit them to the future, is a duty which one generation owes to another." - The Rev Ira C Tyson, Bedford, NH 1885

I've added a lot to this findagrave database over the years and obviously find it a positive experience, but like anyone, I have a couple of pet peeves. (Rant Warning!) Please DO NOT send a request for me to link a memorial to a "burial unknown". Not gonna happen. Also, I receive edit requests to add a period after the middle initial. Unnecessary. I am happy to enter a full middle name, but not a useless period. Get over it :)

I often request a hundred edits in one day. When I photograph a cemetery, I do TONS of research on each of its inhabitants and send the edits as I find information; dates, locations and links to parents and spouses. I duplicate this data in an Ancestry tree to refer to later, but don't usually send source info, as the new edit feature doesn't have a box for this info; I am happy to provide it upon request, ok?

Many other contributors are playing a numbers game and I think they have lost sight of the purpose: documentation. If you are too busy to make requested changes in order to properly document one's LIFE, if you enter the bare minimum of info when more data is readily available, if it is all about entering one more name, please be gracious when one asks for a transferal of the memorial. Nobody is going to list how many memorials you created on YOUR memorial! 100 thorough, family-linked memorials are better than 126,000 half-assed name listings with death date years - but only in my opinion.

Some folks on FAG are re-creating their family tree here which is JUST SUPER if they know where they are all buried. The problem is that they often add memorials without burial information in order to be able to link other memorials together. I take photos to document a grave, and I search the same cemetery on FAG for the name before creating a new memorial. I do NOT search all of FAG because I know darn well where they are buried - so If I duplicate a memorial that some idiot lists as "no cemetery" then forgive me for not considering my memorial a duplicate. Admin now has the ability to research when you edit a memorial, so moving a BU to the proper cemetery after I did the work will not ensure you still have it when they are inevitably merged.

Many of the memorials I have created are for family members, but once I get to a graveyard I photograph many stones and add them here as well. I am thorough and link memorials when the data is on the stone or if I have uncovered it in my personal research. I do not see these memorials as my property and will gladly transfer non-relatives to anyone with more info, a relationship, or more care. I will gladly and quickly make changes/additions/link relations upon request also.

Please feel free to use my pics without request as you wish. I took them for you! I it really tickles me to find a pic someone has been looking for.

That being said, there are many contributors here that truly care that these memorials matter. They spend hours in graveyards and on their computers to ensure that these folks are not forgotten. In their profiles there is no mention of the website rules. All they ask is that we care. I do.

Amy Maker Levesque
Ctr Barnstead, NH

Hi, I'm Amy!

I have been doing gene research for several years and have an extensive tree on Ancestry.com. My kin come mainly from the Northeast, Canada, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. I am a Maker, a Parker, a Harvey, a Heath and a Kemp. I have extensive roots in Cutler, ME and Merrimack, NH.

I love wandering old places and especially graveyards. One's name may never have been written previously or since, one's life never recorded other than the engraving on the stone.

"To gather up the records of the past and present, and faithfully transmit them to the future, is a duty which one generation owes to another." - The Rev Ira C Tyson, Bedford, NH 1885

I've added a lot to this findagrave database over the years and obviously find it a positive experience, but like anyone, I have a couple of pet peeves. (Rant Warning!) Please DO NOT send a request for me to link a memorial to a "burial unknown". Not gonna happen. Also, I receive edit requests to add a period after the middle initial. Unnecessary. I am happy to enter a full middle name, but not a useless period. Get over it :)

I often request a hundred edits in one day. When I photograph a cemetery, I do TONS of research on each of its inhabitants and send the edits as I find information; dates, locations and links to parents and spouses. I duplicate this data in an Ancestry tree to refer to later, but don't usually send source info, as the new edit feature doesn't have a box for this info; I am happy to provide it upon request, ok?

Many other contributors are playing a numbers game and I think they have lost sight of the purpose: documentation. If you are too busy to make requested changes in order to properly document one's LIFE, if you enter the bare minimum of info when more data is readily available, if it is all about entering one more name, please be gracious when one asks for a transferal of the memorial. Nobody is going to list how many memorials you created on YOUR memorial! 100 thorough, family-linked memorials are better than 126,000 half-assed name listings with death date years - but only in my opinion.

Some folks on FAG are re-creating their family tree here which is JUST SUPER if they know where they are all buried. The problem is that they often add memorials without burial information in order to be able to link other memorials together. I take photos to document a grave, and I search the same cemetery on FAG for the name before creating a new memorial. I do NOT search all of FAG because I know darn well where they are buried - so If I duplicate a memorial that some idiot lists as "no cemetery" then forgive me for not considering my memorial a duplicate. Admin now has the ability to research when you edit a memorial, so moving a BU to the proper cemetery after I did the work will not ensure you still have it when they are inevitably merged.

Many of the memorials I have created are for family members, but once I get to a graveyard I photograph many stones and add them here as well. I am thorough and link memorials when the data is on the stone or if I have uncovered it in my personal research. I do not see these memorials as my property and will gladly transfer non-relatives to anyone with more info, a relationship, or more care. I will gladly and quickly make changes/additions/link relations upon request also.

Please feel free to use my pics without request as you wish. I took them for you! I it really tickles me to find a pic someone has been looking for.

That being said, there are many contributors here that truly care that these memorials matter. They spend hours in graveyards and on their computers to ensure that these folks are not forgotten. In their profiles there is no mention of the website rules. All they ask is that we care. I do.

Amy Maker Levesque
Ctr Barnstead, NH