Success

I realized recently that my father's family has not been receiving equal time on this blog. I admit, this has largely been because I haven't had the same kinds of information to share. I don't have the same relationship with them as I do with my mother's family, so there aren't as many stories or pictures to share.

However, this has changed over the past few months, and I know I need to do a better job of sharing those finds.

Previously I've blogged about Pearl May Bartlett, and her family still produces the most amazing finds. I love researching them because it's through them that I feel like I continue to learn them most about myself.

As I have been using my new map tool more effectively, I have been focusing on finding cemeteries and headstones. While searching on FindaGrave.com, I made some great discoveries.

I already knew her father's name is Stephen Friel Bartlett. He's very well documented in my research through census records...

1910 Census

1920 Census, page 1

1920 Census, page 2

1930 Census

And when I searched FindAGrave for Stephen, it was enough good fortune that I found the cemetery photo...

Not to mention a photo of the headstone for him and his wife Emma Blair McKenzie...

But I managed to score something even more priceless that night when I stumbled upon that FindAGrave page result.

Stephen Friel Bartlett

A photo image of the man himself. Which, in turn led to...

Thomas Gardner Bartlett

A picture of his father, Thomas Gardner Bartlett...

With headstone photo. Which led to a picture of his wife...

Sarah Ann Wright Bartlett...

With her headstone photo as well.

I am still downloading and organizing much of the information provided by digital cemetery. But to me, the greatest finds in a discovery like this are always the photos of the person himself. To have a face to associate with the information I spent so much time gathering makes it all so much more tangible. I can imagine seeing this person, this face again in some distant future. I will know him when I see him, and I can greet him by name. In looking into the face of a photograph, I stop dealing with facts and I finally begin dealing with a person.

After a find like this, I couldn't have been more excited. But that was only the beginning.

To be continued...