If you are a relative of anyone who has a memorial that I am managing, please contact me and I will happily transfer it to you. I am not possessive about the memorials I've created. I will transfer to relatives outside of Findagrave guidelines (e.g. nieces/nephews, cousins, and more distant relatives) and will consider requests by non-relatives if you have a particular interest in maintaining the person's memorial.

Recently, I have been helping to document the graves of Union soldiers for the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. I am temporarily managing several hundred memorials of Union veterans while in the process of transferring them to the SUVCW account.

I also photograph historic gravestones in the Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose, California. While thousands of burials at this huge urban cemetery are already in Findagrave, there is still plenty of work to be done. Oak Hill is home to stunning works of 19th century cemetery art, as well as many more humble gravestones that are damaged or at risk of total destruction, and deserve a digital record.

I have created many memorials for previously unlisted burials using burial records and newspaper reports. As these sources are sometimes inaccurate, please contact me if you have contrary information and I will be happy to correct the memorial.

I believe in being kind and assuming that everyone has good intentions.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Permission is hereby granted to use any photos that I have posted on Findagrave in your personal genealogies and family trees, including family trees posted on genealogy websites such as Ancestry.com.

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"Dear Ancestor" by Walter Butler Palmer

Your tombstone stands among the rest

Neglected and alone

The name and date are chiseled out

On polished marble stone

It reaches out to all who care

It is too late to mourn

You did not know that I exist

You died and I was born

Yet each of us are cells of you

In flesh and blood and bone

Our blood contracts and beats a pulse

Entirely not our own

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled

One hundred years ago

Spreads out among the ones you left

Who would have loved you so

I wonder how you lived and loved

I wonder if you knew

That someday I would find this spot

And come to visit you.