Funny story about doing Find a Grave work

[GobBluth]

I am working on a local cemetery. Luckily most have been entered thanks to a kind hard working soul, but not all have pictures. The town I live in is densely populated by Greeks. Many of the headstones are written in Greek. I probably had taken about 30 such pictures of Greek headstones. I picked the easiest one (many of the Greek worded headstones are very old) for my Greek-American husband to translate for me. Guess what the last name was? Our last name!! He thought I was being funny, I was SHOCKED when he said our last name. My married surname is not common. Took it to my mother-in-law and she told me "he MUST be such and such's son". Searched him on Ancestry, she was RIGHT! She had no idea he was there, and now is going to tend to his grave. I think he was trying to be noticed for some reason. He died with no wife or kids.

Also, my friend is helping me take pictures. She was taking pictures of a dual headstone. The wife had a lot of flowers and knick knacks, and all her husband had was 1 smashed pinwheel. She felt bad so she tried to straighten it out, but it still wouldn't spin. She sat down on the bench next to the headstone to forward me all the pictures she had taken. All of a sudden 2 gusts of wind blew on this very hot day, and she heard "thwack thwack thwack". The pinwheel was spinning and smacking the headstone! I don't know why, but that story made me smile.

Or is the above just too woowoo? lol. I don't know, but the "happenings" made me happy that day and encouraged to go out and take more pictures.

[pipi_k]

1. I like hearing stories like that...

"woo-woo" or not, and I have no way of knowing whether any of them are.

I have a "woo-woo" story also.

My younger brother died Feb 12, 2011 in FL.

His body was shipped back up here to Mass, and the funeral was five days later.

Well, that day a powerful windstorm passed through the area. We don't often get wind storms that time of year, so it was unusual.

He had a mischievous sense of humor, so I felt it was his way of making his presence felt. Oh, and that year we also had some tornadoes, a minor earthquake, a hurricane, and a freak snowstorm in October.

All of them relatively unusual for my area.

Woo-woo or not...I don't know...

But I felt like my brother was pranking us from wherever he was.

[Lucinda]

2. I am a firm believer in a lot that gets labeled as woo! I'm posting to say

that I really admire you for working on the Find a Grave site.
It has been a big help in my research.

editing "lots"

[GobBluth]

3. thanks for not making me feel like a freak

It's been so nice. Am still working that cemetery, but getting more into it. Trying to find censuses, various certificates, and stories to accompany the memorials, and it has been so interesting reading everything. I know someday, somebody like me, will be so happy that all that is there.

I haven't been on DU in so long, because I have been working my own lines, and the lines of others in this cemetery. I have made so many "Friends' thanks to it. Which has only expanded my research process on my own lines. I like to think of it as genealogical karma. If you all get the chance, get out there and start snapping pictures!

Today I just reunited an elderly lady in Greece with her Cousins in Ohio. Her granddaughter in Greece had contacted me (I have the same last name as her great aunt) and hoped I was a distant cousin that could help. I actually am a married into the family one, but not quite what she was looking for. She told me her YiaYia (grandmother in Greek) was so happy when she called the people (and they were thrilled also) I had found for her. All thanks to one 1940 US Census and one obit. It is so fun!