Married Male, Retired 75+.

Visiting churchyards looking for relative's graves and taking photos of memorials that had names that seemed familiar, only to find out later they were not in my family tree, led me to submitting them to FindaGrave rather than just deleting them from my camera's memory card ( something I bitterly regret doing in the past, as I am sure some turned out to be relatives graves as my tree grew ).

Using FaG as a sump for these photos meant they were there for me for the future and if not mine, hopefully they would turn out to be the graves of someone else's ancestors. So win, win.

Please feel free to take any photos that I attach and upload them to your family tree. You do not need to ask my permission, though saving the source may assist you with future research as I submit more entries. I'm happy to transfer non relatives of mine however you are related.

Before making photo requests of graves please check to see if the cemetery still exists, if there are any remaining memorials and reasons for other failed photo requests at the location in question. Please realise it is a waste of volunteers time if the cemetery is now a park, a car park, or under a block of flats etc.

As with other grave photos submitted by other FaG members, it is nice to be credited with the source on your family tree etc rather than claim credit for yourself.

Grave locations often estimated from memory. I've used the Google map to find coordinates but sometimes the plot is obscured by trees etc. so grave may not be quite where shown with pin or coordinates.

Birth year, if not known, is often based on estimated age recorded in birth, baptism, census records etc. I feel it is often better to see an estimated birth year than wonder if the deceased is one week old or 100 years old.

Remember, even inscriptions on graves can be an estimated age or sometimes an estimated death year. Birth dates on the 1939 register are not always correct but are used if there are no alternatives.

I hate making mistakes. Please inform me if you notice any.

"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 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 if you lived and loved,

I wonder if you knew

That someday I would find this spot,

And come to visit you.

Author ~ Walter Butler Palmer (1906)