Letter
from David and Martha Montgomery
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below to contact them
David
studying a cemetery layout
In
the year of two thousand, the first year of the new century, I (David) became
interested in surveying the cemetery where my grandfather & grandmother as
well as my great grandfather and great grandmother on my father’s side
were buried. I noticed pages on the world wide web where people were doing
that, so I did that one and sent it in to a website. After several months
passed, I became interested in doing more. I did a cemetery where we once
attended church. After that I suppose I was hooked.
From
the first one until the present time has been about seven years of actively
surveying or enumerating as it is also referred to. I work as a volunteer. I have been out in the winter when my hands
got so cold, I could hardly hold a pencil or pen. I’ve also been out in
the hot time of the year when it was so hot that if one didn’t wear a cap
or hat, a severe sunburn would be the result.
About
four years ago, my wife Martha started helping me, mostly on the large
cemeteries. Now, she enjoys it as much as I do. Some folks frown when I mention
that I/we survey cemeteries to be placed on the internet. I always tell them
that we enjoy the fruits and rewards of helping folks far and wide to acquire
dates and the burial place of their ancestors.
We
strive very, very much to be accurate with our work, however, human beings make
mistakes and sometimes we do that. Most folks are kind and email us expressing
their gratitude for the work we do. A few months ago, I received email
inquiring about the location of a cemetery. We have never been to the cemetery
so I started working with topographical maps on the internet, found the GPS
coordinates, looked at other road maps, etc., and gave the people directions to
get there. I received an email later telling me that they were successful in
finding the cemetery and were appreciative of my work in helping them locate
it. That, friends, are when the rewards flow in.
On
the pages of this site, it is my hope that someone will find the information
that they need. More pages will be added as we enumerate more cemeteries in the
future.
David enumerating a
cemetery
Sincerely,
David & Martha
Montgomery
Cemetery Enumerators