After a troubled relationship in life, I got some satisfaction today by successfully putting my mother in her place. No, not like you might think…
I was on Find-a-Grave and finally signed up so I could suggest some edits. One of suggestions I made connected my mother to her parents and now I can go to find-a-grave and see her where she belongs, next to her parents and siblings.
I think she would have wanted to be buried next to them too, but it’s too late for that. She has a new place where she will rest next to my dad instead. But at least she can be near her family virtually, in an online memorial. She went to visit her parents graves as often as she could and leave flowers. I think she would be happy to be connected here at least.
The website has been super helpful for some of the family history research I’ve been doing. I love finding a memorial with a good bio on it. While the site is not considered “proof” in a genealogical sense. It’s a good place to start. If you can get some good names and dates finding a census record or marriage certificate is so much easier.
But mostly, it makes me happy to see the families linked together. We get so spread out now, it’s not like everyone is buried in the same part of the same cemetery like the used to be. It’s sad to think about that lost aunt or uncle who got buried in some distant cemetery with no one to go leave them flowers once in a while. But you can at least put your family back together virtually by creating these links.
Find-a-grave is actually free. When you become a member you can create or edit memorials of your loved ones and leave flowers (also free). The only request for payment I’ve seen so far is if you want to “sponsor” a memorial for $5-10 which removes the ads from that page of the website.