Tombstone Tuesday Surprise

I found John Sackley brother of Lillian Sackley Sherman on "Find A Grave" website.  There was only an obituary posted so I requested a picture of the tombstone.  I included that there might be other Sackleys in the area if they saw them would they include those too.  Imagine my surprise when the picture came and it was a tombstone for the son, the father, and the mother.  I am very grateful for Sue(and volunteers like her) that took her time and effort to take the picture and post it.  This is what makes this site so neat.  Loving helpers that know what it is to want to see an ancestors tombstone, but can not get there.
Thanks Sue.

Family Mosaic

Little Red House hosted Mosaic Monday.  I am afraid I am about 10 minutes late.  But...slow start great finish...lol  This is my wonderful family and how it has grown.
All but the last child is married.  I have 13 grandchildren and 2 more on the way...

When We Need An Uplifting Hand Angels Appear to Help US

I was an only child.  My parents kept close to their extended family so my cousins began to feel like extended brothers and sisters.  When I moved,  what seemed far away, we lost contact.  I developed some wonderful friends that filled the loss of family.
In my picture on the right is my cousin from Oklahoma with his daughter, in the smaller picture are cousins from two families.  The darkheaded girl on the end is who I will be speaking of.  The butterfly is symbolic of a special friend that I don't have a picture of.
I was very blessed by each of the pictured loved ones.  When my sweetheart was in the throes (this is a great word to describe the pains of fighting cancer) of struggling with pain, doctors, chemotherapy, and all the fields of battle in cancer. These wonderful angels jumped in to lighten our load.  My cousins and I had not seen each other for several years, but the ties are very strong.  They couldn't be there with us, so they did what they could, such as sending funny jokes for us to laugh at...that is a biggie.  There were calls to check on how we were doing and share something funny.  I can't tell you how much it meant to my sweetheart to get those emails, and calls because he worried about me.  He didn't want me to be alone, and he was uplifted by their response to our need.  They have not stopped now that he is gone.  I still get the funny emails and calls.  I am very thankful for their loving gifts.  I pray for them to be blessed for their unselfish giving of time and love.

This is from Lori's writing prompt.  I have put a link to her blog on the side bar.

I purchased several elements from StoneAccentsStudios to start creating my own family digital scrapbooks

The gingham background and the butterfly are from http://scrapsationalscraps.blogspot.com/ .
The quickpageframe is from mITSYBELLE  

Cade Cemetery in Streetman, Texas - StoppingPoints.com

Cade Cemetery in Streetman, Texas - StoppingPoints.com

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Making Family Heirlooms Accessable

Today, I was walking into the grocery store and there in front was a group of Shriners taking donations for their hospitals in Texas.  I walked up and donated because I know what a wonderful job their hospitals do.  I also asked whether my mason's apron would be viewable by the public if I were to donate it to them.  I received a resounding yes that anyone could go see it if desired at the museum in Waco.  I will be donating it to  the Masonic Grand Lodge in Waco, TX, which has a Library (that does genealogical research or allows you to do the research yourself) and a Museum,in December. I am excited that it will be available for any family member who desires to go to see it, because I can not always be available when others would like to make their visit.  This is a good thing.

Keeping Up With Pedigree Changes

I work with the New Family Search program which shares information with others and they can change and add to your pedigree.  At first I was very perturbed (that word probably dates me), then I understood the dynamics of the process and how it actually related to real life and personal perceptions of a family. Now I actually am enjoying the working together and how it widens your knowledge.

I made the picture above to demonstrate how my perceptions of this family has grown as others have shared their information with me otherwise, I would have been stuck, as I really am on some of this family, seeing them as youth never grown up.  I love finding out what happened to the members of the family.  Where they went, if they had children and what life held for them.  It is a wonderful adventure.

Reaching Across The Gulf Of Time

I spent the other day cruising through the website "Find a Grave".  I have contributed pictures for people from my area, but had not really searched and looked at the website itself.  I was excited to find the grave of my ancestor in Savannah, Georgia from the Colonial times.  I had heard about it from several different members of the family who had been able to visit it and was always sad I could not go there myself.  As I was reading the site, I realized it was not a family member who had presented the photograph, but a kind person who was assisting in building virtual cemetries yards.  Finally, I saw the call for someone to sponsor the page so it was not an advertisement.  The cost was not great and I thought, I never knew this ancestor, but she and her son and her grandson had had a huge effect on my family.  I decided, I must sponsor this site to let others know that she was a loved and cared for woman.  So many of graves of our ancestors from the 1800's and before are not remembered any longer, partially because we live so far away from where our origins were. 
I am thankful to those who conceived the idea of a virtual cemetery and made it possible for those of us far away to pay our respects to our kindred dead.   Sophia Sellick Gildon's Memorial