The Year Ahead – October 18

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

October 18 – Design a scrapbook layout or collage with cemetery souvenirs. Including tombstone photographs, obituaries, graveyard history and a map.

There is a cemetery in Doylestown, Columbia County, Wisconsin where many of my relatives are buried. Many years ago, a distant cousin and her daughter transcribed the entire cemetery (long before Find A Grave became popular).

However, this project idea is very similar to project that DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) are doing within their chapters. They are mapping out various cemeteries near their meeting places. One thing they recommended was to start with a smaller cemetery. This can become quite a big project.

Thus, if I want to do this cemetery, Find A Grave shows there are 898 memorials, this would be quite a project. One of the cemetery photos happened to be of my relative, Edward McMahon who died at age 16. He is listed on one side of the large stone and his mother is showing on the other side. In the distance and to the left of the previous stone mentioned is another McMahon descendant.

This might make for an interesting project where I could just highlight my relatives in a cemetery. I will have to add this to my long list of project ideas.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!