As a girl, I was fascinated with the photo records and family trees, collected and displayed by Marguerite Hess Parrish (family historian) at our annual Vary Family Reunions. My current interest in genealogy reignited in 2006 through a chance encounter with migrating monarch butterflies in the Judd [Family] Cemetery in Jefferson County, New York. Subsequent visits with my nonagenarian mother to other old cemeteries while looking for graves of our ancestors in NY State led to a new passion for preserving our findings for posterity. During the summer of 2007, I coordinated a Vary family transcription project in Fairview Cemetery, Harrisburg, Lewis County, NY. What an adventure! We documented all existing graves. A copy is housed at the Lewis County Historical Society in Lowville NY.

As a girl, I was fascinated with the photo records and family trees, collected and displayed by Marguerite Hess Parrish (family historian) at our annual Vary Family Reunions. My current interest in genealogy reignited in 2006 through a chance encounter with migrating monarch butterflies in the Judd [Family] Cemetery in Jefferson County, New York. Subsequent visits with my nonagenarian mother to other old cemeteries while looking for graves of our ancestors in NY State led to a new passion for preserving our findings for posterity. During the summer of 2007, I coordinated a Vary family transcription project in Fairview Cemetery, Harrisburg, Lewis County, NY. What an adventure! We documented all existing graves. A copy is housed at the Lewis County Historical Society in Lowville NY.