Volunteer Researchers

We all are aware of sites such as Ancestry.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, FamilySearch.org, however one thing that many aren't aware of is all the volunteer researchers out there. Organizations such as Random Acts of Genealogy Kindness, Find a Grave, Names in Stone, are wonderful resources to find information that you don't have access to. Many can retrieve old land documents, marriage records, they will know where and who to talk to get the information for you if it is available. As a Volunteer, it is a great honor to help others solve the mystery, take one more brick down in their quest to complete their family tree.

One individual I took a request for wanted a photograph of a Grandma and her son. He couldn't locate the Grandfather. Turned out there were 3 Generations of the same name for the males, when I went to the cemetery on the back of the stone was a list of family, and next to the Grandmother's grave was that of the Grandfather. 

The back of this headstone helped clear up the confusion. It was set in between the two individuals and had a list of Father, Mother, children on the back. There is one name at the bottom that I will go and do a stone rubbing for, it was a child's name and different last name. At the time there was snow on the ground and limited the amount of time I could apply to photographing the details of the stones.