The last week has been rough at our house. The stomach flu made its way through all of us with the exception of my husband. Despite spending the majority of my time being a human pillow for my feverish, sleepy little lad, I did have some cool genealogy moments.
But first!
Exactly one year ago today, we said goodbye to our missionary. One year down, one to go! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Here is my favorite picture from that day.
And Second –
Momma C is a woman in South Carolina who loves Mormon Missionaries. She adopts them, trains them to say “Yes ma’am”, take out her garbage, and bring in her groceries. In return she feeds them – a lot, calls their mothers every week, and sends text messages with pictures. My missionary has been in that area for exactly 8 days. I’ve gotten 2 phone calls, 17 text messages, and 16 photos from Momma C during those 8 days. What an awesome service! What makes it even more remarkable to me is that Momma C is a staunch Baptist, raised by a Baptist Preacher whose best friend happened to be a Mormon Bishop. What a great reminder she is that we really don’t have to have the same beliefs or viewpoints to just love and serve each other. And as she said, “We really do believe mostly the same things”. Bless her, for focusing on our similarities, not our differences. ❤️
Now for the genealogy.
On Sunday I was fortunate enough to teach a group of 15 and 16 year olds a little bit about Family History. I love doing that!
In preparing, I revisited one of my earliest “hunts” – Helen Boles. Helen is my 3rd great grandaunt. Learning her story took quite a bit of digging. I planned to tell her story as part of my class, so I wanted the details to be fresh in my mind. While reviewing, I also reviewed my Ancestry hints for Helen, her husband John, her children, and grandchildren. Ancestry had a hint for a FindAGrave entry for Helen’s husband John.
The hint was accurate. But even better was the fact that someone had uploaded a photo of the headstone! Helen had paid for a monument and included information about her husband, granddaughter, and great-grandson on the stone. This act of love just added to my depth of feeling for Helen.
This headstone find sent me on the hunt for other cemeteries in Scotland that might have been added to FindAGrave. Then I just branched out and found a handful of headstones for my Boles family from Scotland. Among them:
- James Thomson Boles (grandson of Helen Boles), wife Mary Ann Storey, and sons James Thomson Boles and John Albert Storey Boles. Scotland
- James Boles (nephew of Helen Boles), wife Jessie Ferguson, and daughter Annie McFarlane Boles. Scotland
- Barbara Crow Boles (granddaughter of Helen Boles), and husband Robert Smith Yuille. Scotland
- Isabella Boles (mystery great granddaughter of Helen Boles), and husband James Moffat Marr. Scotland
- Isabella Muir Boles (niece of Helen Boles), and husband Alexander Kirkwood. Ontario, Canada
- John McLaren Boles (nephew of Helen Boles), and wife Jean/Jane Penman. Ontario, Canada
There were a few other Boles entries in these cemeteries, but without the stones for confirmation, they are still hanging out on my “likely” list.
In the past, I haven’t had much luck finding cemeteries or headstones for family members outside of the US. These new finds were especially exciting.
I am so grateful for the individuals who photographed the headstones and added them to FindAGrave. This act of service helped me learn more about many of my family members. But even better than learning more, was the connection I felt when viewing the stones, particularly the one that Helen had made for her husband, granddaughter, and great-grandson.
How about you? Have you found any cemeteries or headstones on FindAGrave outside of the US?
Or even better, have you helped to photograph a foreign or obscure cemetery and uploaded the photos to FindAGrave?
If so, I commend you for your great service.
Happy Thursday! My kids start school next week – more time for genealogy. 😉