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Old Tombstones Tell Stories

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There are many things that you can learn from the dead. This is why genealogists spend time in cemeteries, searching for the gravestones of their ancestors. Every so often, you can find some fascinating stories in the news about cemeteries, or parts of them, that genealogists have found. Sometimes, those stories can be quite bizarre! There are tombstones surfacing on Ocean Beach in San Francisco, California. Imagine, walking down the beach and finding a large, intact, tombstone sitting on the sand! It seems that, every so often, the shifting sands on the beach uncover some tombstones. Everyone talks about them … Continue reading →

Barcodes on Gravestones Tell Stories

Genealogists visit cemeteries because they can get a lot of information about a relative or ancestor by reading his or her gravestone. Usually, there is a limit to how much a gravestone can tell about a person’s life. A company called Code_IT has created a barcode that can connect a genealogist to a digital memorial of an ancestor. There is an old saying that states that “dead men tell no tales”. Their tombstones however, can give a genealogist quite a bit of information. You can learn the person’s full name, their birth date, and their date of death. Sometimes, a … Continue reading →

Dead Men Tell No Tales…But Their Tombstone Do!

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After a person becomes deceased, that person can no longer tell anyone about the important events that he or she experienced in life. Genealogists realize this truth when their research leads them down a “dead end”, or when they cannot locate a much needed vital record. Tombstones, however, can give you a glimpse into a person’s life. Death is a somber and grief filled event for the family of the deceased. Despite this, there are tombstones that have sayings carved into them that can make people smile, or even laugh out loud. Often, these funny saying or poems reveal clues … Continue reading →

How Accurate is ‘Lincoln?’ Part 1

Like many people, we went and saw Lincoln this weekend. I had read nothing but great reviews and one even suggested you take your children. The person who wrote that review might want to change it to say “take your teen” because I took my eight-year-old and after about 15 minutes, he was asleep. And mind you, this is the child that stayed awake for the entire showing of The Conspirator, an equally slow yet historically interesting movie about the assassination of Lincoln. Actually, I can’t blame him – the first part of the movie was really slow and it … Continue reading →

Hooray For Grandfathers

Father’s Day is this weekend, and it is time to celebrate all of the fathers in our lives and the lives of our children. If a child is lucky, he will have the opportunity to enjoy a relationship with not only his own father but the fathers of both of his parents. Unfortunately, I never met either of my grandfathers because they passed before I was born. I had a step – grandfather, but he passed before I was old enough to remember anything about him. My husband was able to enjoy a relationship with his grandfather when he was … Continue reading →

What Are Your Genealogy New Year’s Resolutions?

A lot of people are going to be making New Year’s Resolutions today. Whether their resolutions for 2011 are health related, travel related, or simply a promise to themselves to stop procrastinating, there is something about having a brand new year ahead of you that inspires people to better themselves. What are your genealogy related New Year’s Resolutions? I can share with you a few of my genealogy related New Year’s resolutions. One involves scrapbooking. I literally have a box of photographs that document a trip that my husband and I took halfway across the United States that I’ve been … Continue reading →