I enjoy creating memorials to reunite them with family. I am happy to transfer memorials that are not my relatives to their family members whether in or out of guidelines (unless you are someone who will only transfer within guidelines...then I will only transfer to you if it is within guidelines :)). Please let me know how you are related. If they are my relative, I would love to chat and see how we are related. If you ask to manage a memorial that is my relative but you don't state your relationship and do not accept messages, that makes things a little difficult. Please accept messages if you ask me to transfer a memorial to you so that we can connect over the memorial of a mutual family member.

In the past, I often accepted suggested edits even when a strong primary source was not provided, and I noted the contributor's ID in the biography so other researchers could evaluate the information and collaborate.

However, I've been informed that contributor IDs should not be referenced in memorial bios. Because of this, I can no longer add unverified information unless a reliable primary source is provided. Going forward, please include a solid source with any suggested edit so I can ensure accuracy.

If you notice that I referenced you in older memorials and would like that removed, I am happy to do so. Please note that any related edits may also need to be removed unless supporting documentation can be provided.

If you disagree with this policy or feel it limits collaboration, please consider contacting Find-a-Grave to share your feedback and encourage a better system for tracking contributor-provided sources.

Thank you for your understanding.

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STRANGERS IN THE BOX

Come, look with me inside this drawer,

In this box I've often seen,

At the pictures, black and white,

Faces proud, still, and serene.

I wish I knew the people,

These strangers in the box,

Their names and all their memories,

Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like,

How did they spend their days?

What about their special times?

I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time,

To tell, who, what, where, and when,

These faces of my heritage,

Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate,

Of the pictures we take today?

The faces and the memories,

Someday to be passed away?

Take time to save your stories,

Seize the opportunity when it knocks,

Or someday you and yours,

Could be strangers in the box

Author: Pam Harazim

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"We are the chosen. In each family, there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts, but instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the storytellers of the tribe."

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THIS IS A CEMETERY

Lives are commemorated

Deaths are recorded

Families are reunited

Memories are made tangible and

Love is undisguised

This is a cemetery.

Communities accord respect

Families bestow reverence

Historians seek information and

Our heritage is thereby enriched.

Testimonies of devotion, pride and warmth are carved in stone to pay warm tribute to accomplishments and to the life, not the death, of a loved one. The cemetery is homeland for memorials that are a sustaining source of comfort to the living.

A cemetery is a history of a people, a perpetual record of yesterday and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today.

A cemetery exists because every life is worth loving and remembering...always.

-Author unknown. The Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery brochure, Middle Village, New York.

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History remembers only the celebrated, genealogy remembers them all.

Laurence Overmire

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I dreamt death came the other night

And Heaven's gate swung wide.

An angel with a halo bright

Ushered me inside.

And there! To my astonishment

Stood folks I'd judged and labeled

As "quite unfit", "of little worth",

And "spiritually disabled".

Indignant words rose to my lips

But never were set free,

For every face showed stunned surprise --

Not one expected me!

Author unknown

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"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there."

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

For those whose creations are gone, there is a memorial on Find-a-Grave.