Hi there! I've loved cemeteries for as long as I can remember. I enjoy wandering around reading markers, taking pictures and soaking up the peaceful atmosphere.

NEW BOOK! Proud to have been a part of the White Lake Township Historical Society team to publish "White Lake Township Veterans Past and Present" - a 2024 book that includes the burial locations of all veterans in our three cemeteries. I continue to research and chronicle citizens buried in Granger, Oxbow and White Lake Township Cemeteries in Oakland County, Michigan. Message me if you have any questions about these cemeteries or are interested in our book.

Thank you to everyone who has left flowers for my parents, much appreciated!

My beloved dad, Arn Burks - (12/10/1984) shares his December 10th Angel Day with his only sibling, our Uncle Larry (12/10/2021). My beautiful mom, Tillie Burks, gained her angel wings on April 17, 2017. I love and miss you all! Thank you for everything, we will meet again one day xoxo.

My favorite Find A Grave activity is to add photos and flowers. I work near Highland Cemetery in Highland Township, and when the weather is nice I spend my lunch hours there walking and taking Findagrave photos.

Little by little I've been manually transferring a majority of the memorials that I've created over to Find A Grave (#8) so others who enjoy managing pages can do so.

ABOUT ME: I returned to my hometown in Michigan in June 2014 to be my Mom's primary caregiver; she was a stroke survivor who navigated the world of dementia with humor and dignity. She died in April 2017. Now, I'm here to stay.

When I get the chance, I enjoy "Find A Graving" at nearby cemeteries in White Lake, Commerce, Highland, Milford and Independence Township. I especially enjoy taking photos at All Saints Cemetery in Waterford, and at Glen Eden in Livonia where my parents and sister are buried.

I'm a member of the White Lake Township Historical Society. I specialize in researching citizens buried in our township cemeteries. My go to resource for researching older graves are the township cemetery transcripts published by the Oakland County Genealogical Society, invaluable field guides. Thank you OCGS!

GRAVEHUNTING RESUME: I've been drawn to cemeteries for as long as I can remember, having often played among the old tombstones at Oxbow Lakeside Cemetery while growing up in White Lake, Michigan. I'm not just a fan, I'm a plot owner and future permanent resident there.

When I moved to Los Angeles in 1988 I began exploring celebrity graves as a hobby and along the way have been just as moved by the neighboring "civilian" headstones that surround and outnumber them. I met like-minded grave hunters when The Hollywood Underground Yahoo group was formed in 1998. One of the many amazing people I became friends with through this group was Findagrave.com founder Jim Tipton, who, at the time, had just launched the site and was running it out of his garage in Salt Lake City.

I ran the GrandViewMemorialPark.info website from 2007-2015 in order to keep the public informed about the ongoing closure/lawsuit story happening there in Glendale, Calif. The cemetery is now under new ownership and I am focusing on chronicling its 100+ year history.

Volunteers still work on updating the Grand View FindAGrave page and fulfilling photo requests.

Adventures in Grave Hunting is my cemetery-related blog. I haven't updated it in a while but the archives of old stories go back several years. I have a huge backlog of interesting stories just waiting to be told when I have more free time.

My first contribution to Find A Grave was in August 2000, in honor of my grave hunting buddy Denis Svoboda.

I collect vintage photographs of grave markers and of people posing in cemeteries, wondering about the stories behind the snapshots. I like to match them with Find A Grave memorials that are already online, virtually reuniting loved ones whose pictures somehow ended up for sale here and there. See the evolving results here.

My profile image is a one of a kind piece of original art by Lupe Flores that I purchased many years ago in Los Angeles, CA. One of my favorite acquisitions, it's on display in my home office.

For my own "string on my finger" reference: Use a period after names where only an initial is known.