Volunteers

First, I would like to thank all the volunteers that contribute their time and effort to support the many Find A Grave memorials.

Secondly, it is my perspective that the memorials and their supporting families are our customers.

So when I see an opportunity to enhance a memorial, I do so. For instance when a memorial has plot information but no photo, I request a photo. Not for my benefit but for our customer's. So when a request is fulfilled, I don't have an "urge" to thank the volunteer.

Yes, a "thank you" is nice and appreciated, but I don't expect them. We are all contributing, so I don't think an individual thank you for each contribution is necessary amongst us volunteers, but I do thank you again.

Two experiences

2023 summer - I decided to take a day trip to Hillsdale, Michigan in search of my ancestors' gravesites that I knew were numerous in the area. Before leaving I searched on line for names and I hit upon the Find a Grave site. I was amazed at how specific the grave information was and how easy it was to go from family member to family member. I located numerous graves which significantly enhanced the fun of the trip.

Late 2024 summer – I was in the area and I stopped at Woodmere Cemetery to check out my grandparent's gravesites. I was pretty sure I knew where they were. It had been 10 years but this time I couldn't find them. (The ground level headstones had sunk and had sod/grass blades grown over them.) Having more specific location information at home, I decided to go home and return in a couple of days. Upon returning I did find the graves and proceeded to edge, raise and clean the gravestones.

The Find a Grave Bug

A couple of days later I began to put these two events together. Are my grandparents in the Find a Grave database (Are there Memorials for them)? I found that somebody had created Memorials for my grandmother and step grandfather. But for my grandfather there was no Memorial. I found that anybody could create a Memorial, so I created an account and added my first Memorial (October 13, 2024).

For 2 weeks I began locating, establishing and connecting memorials for my immediate family members. And then it hit me. I realized that I had access to a treasure trove of family history.

Genealogy

1940's - Harl Herman Myers (My grandfather's cousin) - He established a hand written collection of documents that contained Myers/ Bendict family history that was acquired through personal contacts with members of the family in attendance at the family reunions, through correspondences, as well as through probable access to some other sources (letters and family bibles) now unknown. At that time this collection was held in the possession of his daughter Mrs. Ines Pennell of Sturgis, Michigan.

1970's – Steven Myers (My cousin) – He succeeded in photocopying all of the material which Harl had collected. He used this information for 2 1/2 years for his own researches on the family history. He then began to organize Harl's original notes into a suitable type written form. He rarely added to Harl's information and had made only a couple of corrections. In the process he had verified much of this information in the public offices and consider the entire work to be a valuable contribution to the record of our family history. With the advent of the personal computer these records now exist in the form of word processor documents.

For more than the past 50 years, Steve has added countless genealogical documents of many other family lines.

Documentary

2004-2017 – Dale Myers (Steve's brother) – He took on a most extensive project. He gleaned from the hundreds of pages of the aforementioned genealogy, thousands of passed down images, dozens of family interviews, a dozen digitized family videos and many family anecdotes to organize and compile our family history centered around our grandfather Bernard S. Myers. The result was 13 hours of professionally mastered digital documentary.

My Goal

Fall of 2024 – I have it as my goal to take Harl's, Steve's and Dale's many, many hours of accomplishment and reflect and incorporate it into the Find a Grave database for many future generations to utilize and appreciate. For the past 1 ½ months I have through Suggested Edits connected many family members while adding specific content. I have added more than 300 photos and created 3 dozen Memorials. I have hardly started!

Family

It was September 1973, just before my grandmother died. My grandparents had brought me from Ann Arbor out to the "cottage" at Pleasant Lake for the weekend. Frankie and Thelma, in their 70's, were there. Frankie and I went out walking up Hieber Road, up the hill, past Uncle Dick's and the one thing I remember from the conversation and will stand out forever, he said, "The only thing you've really got in this world is family." I am 19 years old. What do I know?... But over the last 50 years it gnawed at the back of my brain more and more until it is now crystal clear.

As I walk through the cemeteries, or flip through the Memorial "pages" in Find a Grave, I can't help wonder: "What was their family life like? What personalities, what memories, what relationships, what stories, what wisdom did they take to the grave?"