As some of you may know, or can figure out from my weekly Visions of Death posts, I take photos for Find A Grave.com (see the link above). I really love doing this as I've been obsessed with genealogy for the last decade and I love helping others do theirs. Taking pictures for Find A Grave gives me the opportunity to help others find their ancestors by giving them a little more information, or simply giving them a visual frame of reference (for older ancestors sometimes a picture of a grave marker is all you get). It provides a connection to your family that has gone on ahead of you.

Despite my great love for this and my respect for Find A Grave, I have found that there are a few people on there that I can't stand. These are they who seem to view Find A Grave as some sort of contest. They like to troll the obituaries and create memorials before anyone else can so they can inflate their numbers. It's like they're telling everyone else "I'm better than you, just look at how many memorials I've put up! You puny mortals just can't keep up!" Then they post "bios" that state that if you want a memorial transferred it's going to take an act of congress, or you'd better have written permission from the dead themselves because simply being a family member isn't good enough!

I hate that.

When did genealogy become a competition?! Genealogy isn't about who's better than whom or how many people you can hang from your family tree! It's about finding out who you are and where you came from. I firmly believe that everyone should do their genealogy for this very reason; there are a lot of people who would be very surprised to find out what they have hiding out in the woodpile; and if everyone did their genealogy there would be far less room for racism and bigotry.

If you can't, or don't have time, or don't want to do the work then find someone who can, has time, and wants to help you. You will be surprised at how connected you feel to these people you find and places you've never been to. It's fascinating. Try it.