I live in Brookings, South Dakota, USA.

I've been researching my own families' histories since I was in my twenties and realized that my older relatives were passing away, taking their stories with them.

While I was unemployed for a few months in 2009, I had time to photograph and transcribe the gravestones on the East Side of the Bristol Cemetery at Bristol, Day County, South Dakota, USA. I have many ancestors buried in this well-kept cemetery and have enjoyed many visits there. My dad, Allen Esche, assisted with this project.

In 2015, I photographed and transcribed the stones on the Catholic/West side of Bristol Cemetery, which I later learned is also known as Saint Anthony's Catholic Cemetery. Those photos and names were also uploaded to Find a Grave.

Please feel free to message me with information you would like added to your ancestors' memorials.

Thank you,

Cheryl

'How can I forget you? You are the source of a thousand memories. You are part of my sacred story, an inspiration to be followed for as long as I breathe. How can I ever forget you? I cannot and never will. You are as close as my shadow, as near as my heartbeat. You are the reason memory lasts: that I may learn again and again the deep lessons of love.'

~ Steven Charleston, Native American Elder

Dear Ancestor,

Your tombstone stands among the rest;

Neglected and alone.

The name and date are chiseled out

on polished, marbled 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, in blood, in bone.

Our blood contracts and bears 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 if you lived and loved,

I wonder if you knew,

That someday I would find this spot

And come to visit you.

~ Walter Butler Palmer