Enhancing the experience of Find a Grave. After my retirement from teaching I give people their photo pedigree charts using FamilySearch and an accompanying Find a Grave memorial of each ancestor. FamilySearch has made it so that a facial closeup is the default thumbnail of everyone. At first I did not understand the value, but later I have. Like everyone else I was happy to get any photo of a friend or relative into the Find a Grave memorial homepage. For many this has meant couples, old snapshots, etc. As a result sometimes the Find a Grave thumbnail ends up being indecipherable if not a crotch shot. What many people do know know is that if you right click on the Find a Grave memorial you can have a nice printout without the advertising. This printout includes the thumbnails. So as one of my many contributions to this great website, I comb through pictures to enhance the central photo and hence the thumbnail shot. There is a hierarchy of images which enhance the memorial of an individual. 1) A solitary close up portrait-what I call a "Passport photo", 2) Headstone name, 3) An individual's signature, 4) Monogram, medal, etc. 5) A representation of their name from the era they lived. Although valuable documents like obituaries, tragedy announcements etc. are great and add to the story. I doubt any of us would want our life and key photo to be known for just how we died. Thank you to the Find a Grave community of volunteers. Lets keep gps-ing, linking and all the other things that make memorials better. Sincerely, Kirk Vredevelt

I was born in 1958 in Burbank, California. My family returned to Grand Rapids, Michigan when I was three years old. At the age of 18 I became a genealogist and since that time have found hundreds of ancestors(80,000 on virtual pedigree) and thousands of cousins. I have located hundreds of ancestral graves using findagrave.com. I retired June 2023 after 32 years of teaching history. I married Marie Gingrich on October 13, 2001 in Cocolamus, Pennsylvania. My father in law, J. Lloyd Gingrich was a founding member of the Lancaster, Pennsylvania Mennonite Historical society and the local Juniata Mennonite historical society. When I return to Penn. from Michigan I actively help with his families' genealogy.