Thursday's Tithe ~ Find A Grave

Making resolutions for an upcoming calendar year is nothing new. I've made (and broken) my share of them. My genealogical resolutions so often are set aside because the living interfere with my search for the dead. (You know how families frown on us spending all our free time in front of a microfilm reader.)

Last year I discovered Find A Grave and resolved to enter my ancestors' vitals. A perfectly honorable goal. And who's to say I didn't meet my goal? No one. And therein lies the problem.

This year I resolved to tithe a portion of my genealogical energy for the greater good. Share my resources as so many others have done with me. Which brings me back to Find A Grave.

Have you noticed there are other obituaries on the page with your ancestor's? Me too, and I often wonder who might be looking for them. So this year I modified last year's resolution. And I'm sharing the revised resolution with you for two reasons. 1.) I'm now accountable to you, and 2.) I hope you'll resolve to do something similar.

I promise to enter one new obituary for every day I have been a contributor on Find A Grave. This means I have a little catching up to do. Last night after entering my daily dose of death notices, I searched for a few of the names in my own tree.

Guess what? I found long lost ancestors because another contributor had entered their names. Karma? I can't be sure. But I'm almost positive that if you add your family to this millions-strong list of grave-sites, someone out there will be eternally grateful.