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 |
 |
| 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...