I love this article! thanks for sharing. Laurie Steve Hayes wrote: > forwarde from alt.obituaries > > Ann McFadden is a detective of death > > Mon, Nov. 12, 2007 > BY ANA VECIANA-SUAREZ > > Looking for details about your great-grandfather's death 45 years ago? > Searching for survivors of the friendly neighbor who died without a > will? Can't find your long-lost cousin's grave? > > Ann Josberger McFadden is the woman for you. She is a sleuth, a sort > of detective of death, a woman who has read and indexed thousands of > published obituaries and researched the unusual history of a handful > of South Florida cemeteries. > > For fun. > > ''I didn't mean for it to become a big thing,'' McFadden says with a > little shrug. ``I just started, and I had more free time and. . . .'' > > Her voice trials into a smile. Seconds later, when prodded, she admits > it also takes persistence to read tens of thousands of obituaries on > microfiche and then painstakingly catalog each one by the deceased's > last name, age, cemetery and date of death. Actually, it takes more > than persistence. > > ``You need a lot of patience, absolutely.'' > > Husband Nelson McFadden chuckles from a corner of the couple's West > Miami-Dade living room, where he is reading a magazine. ''Yep, a > little patience,'' he chortles. ''And how do you say it in Spanish? > Muy loco en la cabeza.'' Very crazy in the head. > > McFadden, 74, fell into this research by accident. As a child she > didn't care much for history. > > ''My grandmother lived with us for 25 years, and I never asked her a > single question about her family,'' she recalls. > > But back in 1980, McFadden's brother recruited her in his search for > family roots. As a high school graduate with no specialized research > skills, she wasn't particularly interested, but she also had a lot of > time on her hands. Her seven children were grown. > > McFadden's brother didn't last long in the endeavor. ``He quit after a > month, and I'm still at it.'' > > Tracing her roots led McFadden to Philadelphia where she was born and > spent her first 12 years. When she tried to get a copy of her great- > grandfather's obituary, however, her request and the $5 fee were > returned because there was no index of obituaries and no one to do the > research. Figuring Miami had the same problem, she took it upon > herself to index obituaries from The Miami Herald, Miami News, South > Dade News Leader and Miami Times. > > She began with 1940 to 1950 -- and never stopped. 'Word got around > that I was doing this, and I started getting calls for obituaries from > other years. Somebody needed to find a person who had died in 1960 or > 1970 or 1935. And so I said, `Oh, why not do all of them?' '' She now > has about 120 years' worth of records. > > In the process, McFadden became something of a fixture at Miami's > downtown Main Library, completing a 4,000-page obit index that is > regarded as a marvel. She expands it every year. > > ''We get a lot of requests for obituaries,'' says Renee Pierce, > genealogy manager for Miami-Dade Public Library, ``and if we didn't > have Ann's work or an exact date for the person, we could be reading > microfiche for months and maybe not even find it.'' > > Pierce, who has known McFadden for 20 years, adds that the would-be > genealogist has little use for attention and accolades. ''Ann's a real > gem,'' Pierce says. ``You sit her down in front of the computer, and > she goes to town.'' > > McFadden also has indexed local adoption, military and probate records > and has compiled a short history of a handful of local cemeteries, > including Palms Woodlawn in Naranja, Miami City Cemetery on Northeast > Second Avenue, Pinewood in Coral Gables and Woodlawn North on > Southwest Eighth Street. Along with other local historians, she > contributed to Miami Diary, 1896: A Day by Day Account of Events that > Occurred the year Miami became a City. > > McFadden's latest challenge was to index, by topic, the Agnew Welsh > Collection for the public library, more than 220 books of newspaper > clippings kept by a former newspaper editor on a variety of local > subjects. The project took three years. When the library insisted on > paying her, she charged 55 cents a page, for the 762 pages: $419.10, > quite a bargain, given that each page took six to seven hours to > compile. > > ''Well,'' she says, ``I wasn't doing it for the money.'' > > McFadden's quiet, matter-of-fact diligence has won other fans. > > ''She's done a phenomenal amount of indexing that makes our job 100 > times easier,'' says John Shipley of the library's Helen Muir Florida > Collection. ``Ann is my hero.'' > > When Coral Gables police asked for help to find the correct location > for a tombstone that had been discarded on the street, she used the > name of the deceased to track down the cemetery where the marker > belonged. > > When someone from up North needed information about the last residence > of a long-dead relative, a well-known poetess, McFadden not only found > its Miami Beach location but also trekked over with a friend to take > pictures of the 1920s house because it had a poem etched into the > driveway. She used shaving cream, a trick she had learned during her > research wanderings, to make the words stand out. > > So what about her own journey back into history? Has she found > anything interesting? ''Well,'' she says, ''my ancestors were all > pretty common folk. My mother's family comes from Ireland and my > father's from Germany, and they were very poor.'' But she has had fun > traveling to churches and cemetery offices to research their marriages > and deaths. > > Ironically, McFadden doesn't often traipse through cemeteries. The > information she needs can be found in ledgers and books, and she's > been to her parents' graves only two or three times, usually when > she's at the cemetery anyway for a burial. She doesn't understand why > relatives fuss over misplaced remains because ''I choose to remember > my loved ones in a different way, like right here.'' She points to her > head. > > What's more, she wants to be cremated. ''Land is already being filled > up,'' she says in her characteristically offhand way, ``and I don't > think it [burial] is really necessary.'' > > http://www.miamiherald.com/tropical_life/story/303804.html >