This is the gravestone of my husband, John's great-great-grandmother. It's special to me because of how I came to photograph it.
When John and I lived in Toledo, Ohio, from February 1996 until May 1997, we planned to take a vacation driving around Lake Erie and visiting Niagara Falls in the Summer of 1997. But then John changed jobs which required us to move to St. Louis. We decided to take the same vacation anyway.
I had only recently gotten interested in genealogy and was in the process of entering information that my mother-in-law had given me into my genealogy program. I noticed that one of my husband's ancestors had lived in Canada, and that his first wife, Elizabeth Baechler, had died and was buried near Shakespeare Ontario. While it wasn't really on our planned route, I convinced John that we should make the detour to see if we could find her grave.
We drove to Shakespeare with no idea where to look for the cemetery, but luckily, we found a coffee house with an employee that sent us in the right direction and it didn't take us long to find the cemetery.
John stood by the grave and told me that he realized the attraction of genealogy for the first time in his life. If that young woman hadn't lived, if she hadn't married Henry Baechler and given birth to 4 children before she died at age 29, then he, John, would have never existed. John's motto for his life is "It's all about Me!"
When John and I lived in Toledo, Ohio, from February 1996 until May 1997, we planned to take a vacation driving around Lake Erie and visiting Niagara Falls in the Summer of 1997. But then John changed jobs which required us to move to St. Louis. We decided to take the same vacation anyway.
I had only recently gotten interested in genealogy and was in the process of entering information that my mother-in-law had given me into my genealogy program. I noticed that one of my husband's ancestors had lived in Canada, and that his first wife, Elizabeth Baechler, had died and was buried near Shakespeare Ontario. While it wasn't really on our planned route, I convinced John that we should make the detour to see if we could find her grave.
We drove to Shakespeare with no idea where to look for the cemetery, but luckily, we found a coffee house with an employee that sent us in the right direction and it didn't take us long to find the cemetery.
John stood by the grave and told me that he realized the attraction of genealogy for the first time in his life. If that young woman hadn't lived, if she hadn't married Henry Baechler and given birth to 4 children before she died at age 29, then he, John, would have never existed. John's motto for his life is "It's all about Me!"
It is funny, the moment of realization that for a random encounter we may not exist. Maybe if your gggrandparents had not met.....what a change in the world....you just do not know. What genealogical program do you use. I had all my info on Family Tree Maker, it is on my external hard drive and I can not get back on my computer.
ReplyDeleteI use FTM, too, still using version 16. I've never had a problem transferring my data from one computer to another, though, and have even been able to open files stored on an external drive. I wonder what's up with yours?
ReplyDeleteYour post made me laugh because my husband also says "It's all about me". In fact he named his personal blog "Ego Trip". He also tells everyone who will listen the same story--if so-and-so hadn't married so-and-so etc we wouldn't be who we are.
ReplyDeleteI used FTM v. 16 for many years but switched to RootsMagic and LOVE IT! It will import FTM files with a simple click. He has many great features that FTM doesn't have.