May 24, 2024
This weekend is Memorial Day. I’ve always thought of Memorial Day as a genealogist’s holiday. Most years I make a trip to the cemeteries where my ancestors are buried to remember and honor them.
One of my favorite parts is bringing flowers for family graves. If I knew the person myself, I try to bring flowers that I know he or she especially liked. My paternal grandfather’s favorite flower was wild roses. No one grows the brambly pink flowers, but they’re often found growing wild along ditch banks. If I’m in town, I try to find a bush along the roadside and snip a few of the prickly blossoms for Grandpa.
In my family, the usual Memorial Day flowers were peonies and irises. They were always arranged in old Mason jars. Nowadays I don’t live near enough to the cemeteries where my family is to bring flowers from my own garden. Instead, I bring grocery store bouquets or pots of chrysanthemums. Not the same as bringing homegrown flowers, but I tell myself it’s the thought that counts.
After I visit my parents’, grandparents’, and great-grandparents’ graves, I always make it a point to wander the cemetery and visit all the aunts and uncles and cousins buried there. My husband usually accompanies me and gets to hear my stories about all of them.
Sometimes cousins are at the cemetery at the same time, and we renew our acquaintance over the graves. I tell them about the new information I’ve uncovered in my genealogy research. Often that sparks memories for my cousins and they tell their own stories. I think of it as a family reunion with relatives both living and dead.
Sadly, this year I won’t be going to Utah for Memorial Day. Instead, I’m going to visit my long-gone relatives virtually. Find-a-Grave is the largest website for cemetery photos. It’s a great way to visit cemeteries when you can’t go in person. Not only can you visit your ancestors, but it may be a way to advance your genealogy. The website allows connections between parents, children, and grandparents. By clicking from generation to generation, you can often add several generations to your family tree.
If you’re feeling sentimental, you can even leave a virtual flower for someone on Find-a-Grave. Not quite the same as a bouquet of wild roses, but still a way of remembering an ancestor. You can even add a picture of your relative to his or her memorial. When you can’t visit a cemetery in person, spending some time on Find-a-Grave is a good way to celebrate Memorial Day.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larimer County Genealogical Society