findagrave

  • family reunions, family tree

    Gone, not forgotten

    It has been 22 years this Friday since I lost one of my favorite cousins, Jerry Don Winchester. He was such a caring, and compassionate person that everyone loved.   His life was just beginning with a son and daughter that he adored very much, when he had a tragic motorcycle accident. I asked his little sister if she had any photos of him that I could have and scrapbook. I was a Freshman in high school, and lived in another state at the time when he passed and didn’t have any photos of my own. Thank you so much for that Sissy.

    Jerry Don Winchester-001

  • Ancestry.com, brick wall, digital photos, family historian

    Cemeteries going Digital

    For the past few years I have been volunteering for digital online Cemetery organizations such as Findagrave.com, and Namesinstone.com. Both places work with volunteers to preserve data and photograph headstones of cemeteries. Preserving these burial spots are very difficult  at times. Records change, information is lost, and headstones do not last forever. When my Grandma passed away 3 years ago, we placed in her Obituary states that ashes would be scattered. Instead the family has keepsake urns with her ashes. I personally placed that on her page on Findagrave.com, along with photos of her memorial in our home. This didn’t cost anything to create and maintain.

    However, now there is a new expensive process to track loved ones headstones. The little QR code you see on merchandise is now being offered on headstones at a Pennsylvania company called Digital Legacy  will link a QR code to a website to preserve your loved ones memories. But this is not a free feature like Findagrave or Namesinstone, this one is very pricey at $99.00 a year.

     

    QR codes look like this.

     

    For me there are so many ways to preserve your memories of your loved ones and share that information with family members for free. I do not see the need for another expense when the loss of loved ones have already cost so much emotionally and financially.