My parents and I moved from the Hull bottoms farm in early 1954 to the Kinderhook Hill Farm, on which the Kinderhook Cemetery bordered the west side. I was so young that I don't remember living anywhere else. We farmed next to it for over 30 years and my mother continued to live there until her death. It is one of the most beautiful cemeteries in my mind with it being on top of the bluff and overlooking the Mississippi River bottoms. My dad helped dig graves and I went along to help as a kid. My job was rolling the sod and helping to tamp the dirt along the side of the vault. By the time Dad and Clarence finished, it looked nice like it had before the grave was dug. Later on in high school and early college, the four of us (I had a sister by now) mowed the cemetery with a tractor, two push mowers, and a hand sickle. Eight hours with the four of us working almost non stop would complete the job (this was to earn money for college) and probably to teach us even more work ethic than we were getting on the farm.

I did as much as I could to find my husband's first wife's family tree for medical reasons, his family tree and then mine over 36 years ago before internet. Recently my husband took the job of overseeing the cemetery, where most of his family is buried. We have been updating records for this cemetery and I have been using FAG to verify dates and names on tombstones. Then I decided to look for my family. My parents and my sister are buried in Kinderhook and when I go there to place flowers on their graves I also take photos of the tombstones of their friends and neighbors--the people I knew growing up. If they have a memorial, I add the photo and if not, I make a memorial so they will be remembered.

I think the most difficult thing for me so far are all the unmarked graves or the stones that are missing or unreadable in our local cemetery. We are working as hard as we can to record those who also deserve to be remembered. . . For those who have made memorials of my ancestors, I want to thank you for remembering the people my family and I loved. My family includes Weitekamp, Strasser, Munsterman, Wucherphennig, Matli, Spaeth, Kellenberger, Lange, Edmiston, Murray, Nicol, Redshaw, Mulholland, Hager, Keim, Pfundstein, Goellner, Waldhoff. . . .

You live as long as you are remembered.

Laughed with all. Loved by all.