Researching the background of an interesting grave in your local graveyard

“Yesterday I decided to take a stroll through the local cemetery I've been researching at the firm. Most people hate cemeteries but I look at them as more than resting grounds. It's a little sanctuary in the middle of all the chaos, calm and quiet, almost like a vacant public park. Cemeteries make me feel at peace but yesterday I felt even more than that, I felt a strong sense of warmth and love. Do you ever feel so happy sometimes that it's overwhelming and you feel like you simply belong right there in that moment? That's the feeling that came over me as I set foot on the grounds. During my stroll, a bright headstone caught the corner of my eye [...] Today as I was doing deeper research, her name popped up. She was listed as a granddaughter to one of the founders and keepers of the cemetery back in the 1800s. "No way it's her" I thought. I searched obituaries and grave websites and there she was listed in that very cemetery. I choked back the tears at my desk. I absolutely could not believe it.”

“In the space of one day, I was able to: register at Find A Grave; find and claim a request for a grave site photo that I thought I could fulfill within 14 days; locate the grave, photograph it & leave flowers [...] read some posted information about him (He died in 1902 and was the oldest man in White Bear Lake at his death.) [...] In this case, I was lucky – the tombstone was almost completely illegible, so I fulfilled the request with what I THOUGHT was likely Joseph’s grave. Because she had seen it years ago, she was able to confirm we’d found the right one. I don’t suppose locating and photographing lost graves will always be that easy and fast, but it was a perfect introduction to my new reason to spend inordinate amounts of time prowling graveyards.”