Dear Group, It seems that I can't resist sharing with you some of my past experiences regarding local research. Because one of our listmembers recently asked me about the best way to read old cemetery stones, it brought to mind the two stories I wrote about three years ago that touched on the subject that I shared with the PADUTCH-LIFE mailing list. Here's the first one--the second one follows. vee TWO CEMETERIES IN ONE AFTERNOON August 4, 1997 For some reason, I thought you might enjoy hearing about a few genealogical things that have been happening here in Niagara Co., NY, over the past couple of days. It started with my response to a request to take photographs of the local Curtiss family tombstones. The girl in Minnesota is intensely interested in her connection with the local family, we had exchanged exciting email messages on the subject, and this is what I wrote to her this evening. Dear Jeanne, I'm still trying to catch my breath over the events of last Friday(??). At any rate, I headed out that afternoon with loaded camera in hand, it wasn't the brightest sunny day, but I was filled with high enthusiasm. I stopped first at the Halstead Cemetery and started taking pictures. I brought with me a soft scrub brush and an old tooth brush so that I could scrub away the lichen, etc., in an effort to ensure that every picture I took would be the best that I could manage among the old tombstones. I can only hope that the end result will show the fading details of some of the inscriptions. While I was at Halstead Cemetery, (sitting cross-legged in front of Betsey's tombstone!) three women entered the cemetery. My curiosity got the better of me and I had to ask them if they were looking for a particular stone. Yes, that of Harrison Perry, Sr. Well, I won't go into the particulars, but when I heard the name of Harrison Perry, I had to let them know that I "knew" him--I had already researched his family! Just picture Sandy and me exchanging e-mail addresses in the middle of a cemetery just dying to get back with each other to compare Perry family notes!! Well, after I had finished taking pictures of the three Curtiss graves at Halstead, I drove to the Ransomville Cemetery and settled down to the older graves of Gilbert and his first three wives. It had bothered me that the gravestone of his wife Rebecca was slowly disappearing beneath the creeping sod and I had come prepared to deal with it. I brought with me an old putty knife and (picture this!), there I was on my hands and knees over her grave, in the very front row of the cemetery on "Main Street" in Ransomville, with my hiney facing the passing traffic and digging away the sod and brushing away the dirt from her tombstone! The kids passing by on their bicycles seemed very puzzled about what that "Crazy Old Lady" was doing, what with the dirt flying from the cemetery! But I did it! I managed to uncover her inscription well enough to at least photograph it! And all 24 pictures were eventually taken! It remains to be seen as to how they all came out. (BTW, you owe me $3.00 for the film!) . . . . Jeanne, I can only hope that you can appreciate how exciting this "Crazy Old Lady's" life is right now. Not only am I totally engrossed in your Curtiss/Lincoln family, I'm equally engrossed in the local John Vrooman family, the Perry family, I've got a descendant of John Lloyd who is waiting breathlessly in the wings, on Tuesday I'm having lunch with Maureen Seifert, the "Webmaster" of the Niagara Co. GenWeb sight and on Wednesday I'll have an intense conversation with a visiting computer "guru" who will help the Town of Porter Museum apply for a grant for a computer that will be a bit more on the "cutting edge" than the one we're using that has only 5-1/4" drives in it! Other than that, Hey, I just took the day off today and picked a great big bucket of ripe blueberries after I got my laundry hung out on the line to dry in the nice sunny day! A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! Now, Dear Group, what is all of the above worth? Well, I can only hope that at some future time in your lives you will find yourseves in the same position as I am right now. In the exciting position of giving freely to someone else the same marvelous help you have received from total strangers over the years in the researching of your family. Trust me, it's a breathtaking experience!