Members & friends of Greater Omaha Genealogical Society are reading the markers of the above two cemeteries (almost done with HCWL & just starting on FL). We also have permission to read Mount Hope. If anybody lives in the area and would like to help, contact me--or Mavmom18@aol.com, or Kjackson@radiks.net to volunteer. If you've never done something like this, we'll be happy to train. At FL, we're going in twos, as many of the stones require interpretation they're so worn. We have finished one of the oldest sections over there, but there's lots of chiggers looking for lunch so be sure to wear 100% Deet, which helps. Both cemeteries are thrilled we're working there, as they get lots of inquiries, and in many cases, they don't know who has stones, and who doesn't, so this will aid their work. Eventually, we'll be putting these into book form (or maybe on CDrom) for sale so that we can buy more materials for the W. Dale Clark library--and so we all end up finding more ancestors. We will be including some pictures from each cemetery in the appropriate book. While they'll be indexed, they won't be alphabetical in the sections so you can see who may be next to other possible relatives--and we've got the lot numbers and we'll be including the people without stones, because they're graciously allowing us access to the data base. This also means that when the family only put a death date on the marker, we can put the interment date in as well, example: <int. 2 Jan 2004> so people can look for obits. Weather has not been most cooperative, as it seems to rain when we plan to go out & work--like this morning's gully washer. This also encourages the chiggers. We can use lots more people who are willing to help in a section, or take a section, or whatever. So if you think you have a few hours each month, or even some afternoon, let us know and we'll try to pair you up with someone who's going out, unless you've got your own person that wants to go...then we'll make sure you get trained and turn you loose. Some of the stones need to be "braille-read", others need to be cleaned (water only in the spray bottles), sometimes they need to be brushed off, or troweled out a bit with overgrown dirt. We recommend having the following things available in a tool or tackle box, or a bucket/pail/basket, but many do not have them: spray bottle with good water supply sun screen bug repellent trowel soft brush (paint brush or whisk broom) for sweeping off the stones that just have dirt/grass on top soft scrubbie (like teflon cleaner or soft vegetable brush) something to put down to kneel on like a plastic garbage bag grass clipper is needed occasionally garden gloves or rubber gloves have been known to come in handy Forest Lawn has much older burials, and we're anxious to get section 5 & 7 read this summer because there are very old, very weathered stones there. Some are already beyond hope, unfortunately. Karen