I grew up in Henry County, Iowa, and have been tracing our family roots for more than 50 years. Searches throughout cemeteries in southeast Iowa, and in other states have yielded invaluable family information. Nineteen of my direct ancestors lie at rest in the Cedar Creek Cemetery in Henry County. My Dad was Secretary-Treasurer of Cedar Creek Cemetery from 1976 to 2004.

Sometimes the unexpected can be found walking through cemeteries. More than thirty years ago, when my family first went to the Dover Pioneer Cemetery north of Donnellson to look for the graves of my great-great grandparents Michael and Esther (Russel) Mogel, we could not find a stone. But, there was a large stone lying flat upside down. With the help of my brother's tractor the stone was uprighted, and we saw it was the one we were looking for. It is the stone pictured above in 2013.

My great-great-great-great grandparents Stephen and Margaret (Thornburg) Hockett were among the Quakers who first settled in the Salem area of Henry County in 1837. All sixteen of my great-great grandparents were living in Henry or Lee Counties, Iowa, by the mid-1850s.

The surnames of my sixteen great-great grandparents are Brown, Lamm, Harshbarger, Heck, Smith, Thomas, Frazer, Hockett, Moyle, Fegan, Barnes, Toothaker, Mogel, Russel, Wright, and Metzger.