When I was a kid, my Mom used to hate taking us to the store. It was a guarantee that one of us would get caught in the excitement at whatever store we were at, and we’d lose track of her. More than once my Mom has told the story of my sister walking into columns at the store, despite numerous warnings of “Amanda. Amanda. Watch out Amanda. AMANDA.” BAM. Of course I never did that… I did use to follow the wrong Mom around the store though… Okay so I did that last week.
Never has this handicap of ours become more apparent then it did today. I have a few hours to myself. So I decided to finally add some tombstone photos I took at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Caldwell to Find A Grave. First thing I noticed when reviewing the photos I’d added a few years back was that I missed a few! Somehow when I got all the Thorward photos from my very helpful Photo Volunteer, I forgot to add some of them! He left it to me, and look what happens!
It was shortly after adding Frank Thorward and his wife to the site that I noticed something. Do you see in the sidebar where it says “Find all THORWARDs in”? Well, that’s something that I’m sure has been there all along, but this is the first time I’ve ever noticed it. Please try not to hold it against me, you’ve seen I have a handicap of sorts.
Since I was working on the Thorwards and it isn’t a common surname, I decided to click on New Jersey instead of a lower area.
Only 12 Thorwards came up and 11 of them were added by me in Prospect Hill Cemetery! That 12th name at the bottom looks familiar too!
It just so happens, this is Frank S Thorward’s son. In Mercer County, New Jersey where I probably wouldn’t have known to look for him. The only thing that keeps me from being completely angry at my own inattentiveness is the fact that this record was only added in July.
So please remember the lesson I’ve learned… Always pay attention to ALL features of a website. I only went through 3 steps here, but I’m sure as I learn and venture more I’ll come across more instances.
Kathleen,
You bring up a great point, use that menu.
When I am searching for a name, not quite sure of the Cemetery, I do the search from the State, then County and take a look at the results, then add the Surname. This was especially helpful when the Surname was in this specific county in the early 1800’s. Found them in 3 of the 169 Cemeteries.
I also do some research before going to a cemetery to take pictures for a Request. Look who else is in the Cemetery with that Surname, check out a female birth and married surname.
When trying to locate a plot for a Photo Request, I look at the pictures of any of the headstones for any of those surname “hits” at the cemetery. BUT, I look at the background of any of those headstones to see if there is something in the background that will help me locate the specific headstone I am looking for.
I do try to take and post more than one photo, one for the detail and one for the background.
Find-A-Grave is a great resource.
Thank you,
Russ