With all this talk about cemeteries, especially overgrown ones, I just have to tell you my cemetery story! A number of years ago, I made a tour of some ancestral grounds in MO/KS area. I was visiting a third cousin in St. Joseph, MO. She and her husband took me around to various ancestral homesteads and cemeteries. One of these was a private cemetery, formerly on land owned by my Russell family. The property has changed hands several times since then, so we don't know who did it, but one of the property owners wanted to get rid of the cemetery so he took all the larger stones and threw them over the line fence into a wooded area of the neighboring property! Everything else got plowed under :~(( Well, Rosie and Harold had already found these stones (after much detective work), so they got permission from one property owner to drive onto and park on his property and from the other to go over the fence to see the stones on his property -- one of which was my second great grandfather! We had to climb a fence covered with poison ivy and wade through all sorts of other vegetation -- but I saw and photographed all the stones -- some of which had been pieced together by Rosie and Harold on their previous visit. Here's the great part... The next day, we went to the Pattee House Museum in St. Joseph, MO. They have collections of all sorts of things there. After I had seen everything, I got an idea and I said, "Do you suppose they would like to have some tombstones for their collection?" Rosie knew just what I was thinking -- and, about then, along came the curator! We told him about the stones and he thought it was a great idea. Eventually, all the proper permissions were granted and the museum truck met Rosie and Harold at the site and picked up the stones. They have restored them completely and have set them up on a little piece of lawn in the side yard of the museum! My second great grandfather and others in the family now have a wonderful new resting place! If you are ever in St. Joseph, go see them! Sue Susan M. Hillier Roe [email protected] Seal Beach, CA A friend is one who comes in when the whole world has gone out. Anonymous