Graves in Ontario, Canada

Woodland Cemetery - Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

(photo courtesy of findagrave.com by Miriam McDonald)

2 April 2017

I’m home from a Florida vacation with fresh eyes, renewed ambition, and the genealogy bug is nibbling at me. The bug is easily fed by opening my large ancestry.com file to just about anywhere and I’ll find hints in the form of leaves flying in the virtual wind. This time I was given an email nudge from a fellow researcher. I don’t know her other than she is a kindred spirit who belongs, as do I, to ancestry.com and findagrave.com.

In this case Rosemary was snapping photos of tombstones in cemeteries in Ontario. (When will I ever get to Ontario? Probably never. What a boon the Internet is to genealogists.) As well as adding her photos to the database at ‘Find a Grave’ she did a search for these particular ancestors on ancestry.com and notified me of the photos she’d posted. How wonderful that she went the extra mile.

The odd thing is that I couldn’t find those ancestors on my rather mammoth tree. As of this morning there are 44,228 entries. Subsequently, I wrote back to Rosemary to thank her for contacting me but that I couldn’t find those Canadians in my family. She wrote back immediately saying that these ancestors were on ‘Rachel’s Tree.’ Mystery solved. Over the years I’ve put together family trees for various friends and loved ones and there they sit on my account with little or no attention.

These Canadians of long ago on my friend Rachel’s tree are not my family. The question to myself is – do I spend my time on them or ignore the information and go directly to my tree?  What is the most productive and most satisfying use of my time? (As we get older that is a question we ponder more and more. I had, after all, just turned my Outlander calendar to April 2017 – what time I have left, whether it be less than 1 year or more than 25, is slipping quickly away.) I opted for Rachel’s tree which seems rich with Scottish Protestants who immigrated to Canada in the early part of the 19^th century. How exciting. I can see those woolen garbed Scots with their heavy brogue immigrating to the cold north – a climate to which they were not unaccustomed. What adventurous souls. Were they excited? Scared? In awe of what they dared to do?

Rachel, whose tree I hadn’t looked at in eons, had lots of green leaves flying. I dwelt among them with the new information, mostly recent cemetery photos, for a couple of hours doing updates. Later that day as I was walking Beatrice, my Coton de Tulear whose dog ancestors hale from Madagascar, we stopped at Rachel’s for a chat. In her eighties, with no known living relatives, Rachel was delighted and most surprised to hear that a stranger had contacted me about her ancestors long buried in Canadian ground. Soon she’ll come over to take a look at her enriched tree. Was it a good use of my and Rosemary’s time. Absolutely.

Looking Back, Looking Forward, and the stats

The original plan was to do 18 counties in 18 days – that was overly ambitious and for me a little unrealistic.  I did start in August and ended in September and in that time researched and grew to love 19 of Ohio’s 88 counties. They all have their own peculiar character – all of them representative of Ohio – and yet so different.  Different like siblings or cousins.  If you have more than one child or grandchild you know what it is like to marvel over how related and how different they are.  That is the feeling I have for the 19 counties where my families settled.  

These sibling counties (those split off from each other) and these cousin counties (formed in the same pioneering spirit) are like the children of a family.  

I don’t want to diminish the importance of the remaining 69 counties of Ohio. They are simply not the brothers, sisters, and cousins of my families – but they may be yours.  I encourage my readers to research the history of any of those places and I’m sure they’ll find, as I have, many things of value and of interest to celebrate.  Thanks to all those hard working people in ‘my counties’ who take the time to tell their story on-line – whether it be genealogists, government workers, or volunteers—they all love their home and are most generous in sharing.

I have to put in a plug for Google. When I first started blogging in September 2009 [http://sandyhikes.blogspot.com/] I chose Google’s Blogger for my site. It was clean, simple, easy and attractive. Since then it has gotten a little more sophisticated, but not complicated. It has gotten better and is still clean and easy – free and ad free if I wish it to be.  It is also linked to other Google services like Picasa for my photos.  One day I may learn to use all the other Google services – but at the moment I’m happy and grateful for this outlet where I can express myself and share information. 

There are certain websites that are so useful that I use them over and over.  I’ve done a post on Find A Grave. com and I owe one to Wikipedia.com.

Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki

My blog would be diminished and much more difficult to do if the wiki information wasn’t out there.  Thank you, thank you!  Sprinkled throughout my blog posts you will see wiki links and photos.  I am grateful for the wonderful, free clipart available through mircosoft.com.  I agree with one reviewer who mentioned that her estimation of Microsoft raised several notches when she found their generous sharing of free clipart. 

Google Blogger – thanks for the stats! Part of Google’s blog service is to track how often your blog  is accessed, which posts are read, and where your readers are from. I love this and check often. As of this evening for Aquila’s Orchard Blog I have 41 published posts and they have been accessed 3,502 times. That is amazing and I’m thrilled. Google has graphs showing which days the blog has been accessed. They let me know which posts have been popular that day.  This can be displayed for the day, week, month, or total time. For this week the post on Hamilton County has the most views. That isn’t too hard to understand as Hamilton contains the very large city of Cincinnati. But right next to it in popularity is Knox, a rural country that not only is second in the number of hits but has the most comments. 

One thing that I love about the Google stats is that it has a world map and that shows where your readers are in varying shade of green.  In the world?!  Yes, this is a global site and I have international readers. How cool is that!! I wonder if they are expats, non-English speakers practicing their English, or just interested in things American?  What countries are represented? My second largest audience, by far, is in Russia. The list continues with Germany, South Korea, United Kingdom, Malaysia, France, Norway, Canada, Ireland, China, Indonesia, and Poland.  This is. . .well. . .cool.  Those countries that had one view drop off the list. . . but I find them interesting, too.  Who is that one person in an entire country that read my blog? It’s sort of like having a zillion international pen pals but with only one-way communication. I wish they’d use the comment box and let me know who they are! 

Thanks readers ~ спасибо spasibo, danke, gamsahabnida 감사합니다, Cheers, terima kasih, merci, Tusen takk, Go raibh maith agat, Xièxiè 谢谢, dziękuję !!

 Time to work on that book!

Photos & Clipart:  Wikipedia; Microsoft Clipart, Google Blogger

Find A Grave

Find A Grave – this website was at the top of my “To Do” list for John Cullins and family this morning. Do you know this site?  It is a gem. According to my membership account I’ve been a member 2 years, 4 months, and 4 days. Despite its sad connection to death it is a living, growing, active website where people come to find relatives who’ve passed, or pay tribute by leaving virtual flowers,

or see who else is researching their Aunt Mabel. It stands alone or as a compliment to your ancestry.com tree, and Find A Grave information is available there.

It is a forum to share messages and photos. It is also a great place to volunteer. I use the site very often but do not invest the time many people do, as there are higher priorities at the moment.  In two years it tells me I’ve added one memorial; I manage 2 memorials (that previous owners have handed over to me); uploaded one photo; put in 4 photo requests: left 88 virtual flowers; and added 2 friends. I haven’t put up a bio.  I know, that is pretty pitiful and I must do better in the future.  I’ve volunteered to go out to the local cemeteries and take photos of grave sites requested but it is a popular thing to do here and any requests are snatched up before I get a chance to get out there.  Sigh. For the four requests I’ve made for the Robb family at Cadiz Union Cemetery in Harrison County, Ohio, no one seems to be volunteering.  Maybe some of these San Diegans can drop by sometime. The site tells me that it is only 2,057 miles from home.

Cadiz Union Cemetery
Cadiz, Harrison, Ohio

The Cullins' grave sites needed for our Ohio Pioneers project are in Muskingum County Ohio. Thank you to the volunteers who have trekked to the local cemeteries to record and upload the graves. 

I do my best to connect the Find A Grave to each person (international grave sites are being recorded, as well) where it is available.  I download the hint from ancestry.com and then visit the Find A Grave site – pick up the link and put it in the “Web Links” section (bottom right corner) of the page for that person.  I used to laboriously transfer photos from Find A Grave to ancestry.com but there isn’t any need now that the link is on the page – just a click and you’ll find them.

This morning I looked up the Find A Grave for John 1705-1780 and Jane Cullins. Name spellings change over time and for this name I needed to search Cullins, Cullin, Cullen, Cullens. In Virginia the name comes up Cullens and in Ohio it comes up Cullins for the same family of different generations. John and Jane are my 6^th great grandparents and are our immigrant couple coming from Ireland and settling in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. I found no listings for their grave sites – they may exist but are not on findagrave.com. Their son Edward Cullins and wife, Jane Jones, 5^th great grandparents, moved to Orange County, Virginia. No luck finding their resting place.

Ah, but their son John Cullins, 4^th great grandfather, is on Find A Grave – not with a grave site but a very nice memorial article.  He, along with his wife, Rebecca Jane Beatty, was our early Ohio pioneer, possibly around 1803. There is no memorial for Rebecca. They added to the early population of Ohio by having 10 children and they died in Washington, Muskingum, Ohio.

The 5^th child of John and Rebecca Cullins was John Jr. 1791-1857.

Gravestone of John Cullins, Jr. 1791-1857

He married Dorcas Meredith. Dorcas came from a family of Ohio pioneers in Coshocton County and she died in Fayette County, Iowa. Her tombstone is pictured on Iowa Gravestone Photos Project online. John Jr is featured on Find a Grave in Muskingum County,Ohio. These were my 3^rd great grandparents.

The 2^nd great grandparents, William C Cullins and Amanda Cordray were born in Muskingum County, Ohio but moved on to be Iowa pioneers. It is likely that William’s mother, Dorcas moved west with this couple after the death of her husband.

It has been fun finding information on Find A Grave this morning. Complaints about the site?  I don’t think their search engine works as well as it could.  If you put in information for a specific person often they don’t come up although they are there somewhere.  I’ve found that searching by location and cemetery is sometimes necessary. Search by last name only is helpful. If you are persistent you can often be rewarded.

[Note added 20 Feb 2018 - Since writing this article Find A Grave was purchased by ancestry.com. Subsequently, they have revamped and up-graded the site. It is a great addition to ancestry.com and it is easy to connect your ancestor in Find A Grave to your tree in ancestry.com!]

Photo of John Cullin's gravestone Added by: Kaci Cullins
11/22/2006 on findagrave.com