Hi Cathy, My maternal grandparents, who have the last name of MCCARTHY are buried in a plot at Linden Hill Methodist Cemetery in Ridgewood, NY, and there was always a big tall gravestone on the plot with the name SCHNEIDER on it, next to my grandparents' smaller flat stone. My mother and I always wondered who SCHNEIDER was -- then I got the map of the entire plot, and discovered through a bit more research that SCHNEIDER was the married surname of my great-grandmother's sister (who was the original plot holder, and as a widow in 1926 had either been murdered, or had committed suicide. I am in currently in the process of asking the Municipal Archives if they have any further info on her case, as I was told by another researcher that those records are located there). So the SCHNEIDER name turned out to be a relative of mine after all. So GAFFNEY could be a relative of yours in some way, maybe through marriage. Of course it's possible that the person wasn't related to your family, and there is some other explanation...I'm just informing you of my own experience. Good luck in your research, Karen RosAngel247@verizon.net > A few months ago SKS went into St. John's Cemetery in Woodhaven, Queens, NY > and took a picture for me of the headstone of my great-grandfather, JAMES > JOSEPH THOMAS RYAN, 1880 - 1947. However, when I received the picture, it showed > the name GAFFNEY on the headstone, with my great-grandfather's name under that, > and with his parents names, > PATRICK RYAN & ELLA (ELIZABETH) RYAN under his name. > Here is my question -- who is GAFFNEY? There were no Gaffney's in our > family. Could they have been sponsors for my great-great-grandparents, when they > traveled from Ireland to USA?