My paternal roots stretch back across centuries to South Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. My ancestors left Scotland in 1790 due to religious and eventually economic pressures. They endured the hardships of crossing the Atlantic and settled, not where they had intended to, but on Prince Edward Island in the Maritimes of Canada. Many of my paternal cousins still reside in the tiny community on the western side of that island, while others migrated in many different directions.

My maternal roots are part and parcel of the mass migration of early settlers to British North America who kept on the move. From as far north as Connecticut, as far south as Virginia and the Carolinas, these families kept moving westward seeking land, peace and eventual prosperity in what became these new United States.

I am a long term and rather serious family history researcher. I search for and rely on factual documentation because thinking you know something is not the same as knowing it. As one moves further back in time, sometimes that kind of documentation simply is not there to find. But drifting into suppositions is following a path to nowhere. Historical fiction is not anyone's true family history.

I have been using Find A Grave for almost twenty years and am seeing changes in the memorials that are being posted. I have observed that there are those who post memorials when there is no evidence that the deceased is buried in that location. That kind of memorial serves no one well. Unless there is a headstone, a church record, a death certificate showing the place of burial, or a cemetery record that verifies that the person is buried there...a document of any kind, these memorials really have no place in serious family history research and should not be taken as factual.