Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 23 June 2016.<\/p>\n
My friends and colleagues like to kid me about my genealogy passion and my organizational skills by asking if I\u2019ve already written my own obituary.\u00a0 My reply is always, \u201cI haven\u2019t \u2013 yet!\u201d\u00a0 I really will, though, and just might get a start on it this summer. \u00a0Although I wish my kids would write one like the son of a recently deceased woman’s did: \u201cFaced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday,\u201d the obituary<\/a>\u00a0read, which was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch<\/em>\u00a0on Tuesday, May 17.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 I\u2019ll spare my children having to come up with something clever and will do it myself.\u00a0 I plan on keeping it short but definitely not like this obituary, the shortest ever published:\u00a0 \u201cDoug died.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Perhaps a genealogists nightmare as there is so little information provided but it is telling about the gentleman’s personality.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s important to be prepared so that my living loved ones don\u2019t have an added burden.\u00a0 My mom had her will drawn and paid for her cremation more than 20 years before she passed.\u00a0 I greatly appreciated that; her death was not unexpected as she had suffered with Alzheimers for many years but her loss was difficult for me, none the less. Her planning ahead made it much easier. Following in my mom\u2019s lead, hubby and I have our wills done and our financials all up-to-date with our children able to pick up immediately when we\u2019re gone.\u00a0 What we haven\u2019t done, however, is make a choice of a final resting place.\u00a0 I want my body donated to science as I\u2019ve spent my entire life in the educational realm and figure it\u2019s a good way to end it . The process is called \u201csilent teaching\u201d which would be a first for me – teaching without opening my mouth. \u00a0I\u2019d be happy to enhance a medical student’s education. Hubby has decided he wants to do that, too, but still wants our remains together after the students are done.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, some states have little to no standards regarding cadaver \u201cdonations\u201d so if you\u2019re thinking about it, make sure you\u2019ve thoroughly investigated the laws where you reside.<\/p>\n When I write \u201cdonations\u201d I need to clarify, too, that the donor is paying for some of the costs.\u00a0 This is not a free burial.\u00a0 In fact, some organizations will only take embalmed bodies with that cost incurred as a responsibility of the donor.\u00a0 The (c)remains may or may not be returned to the family.\u00a0 If they are, there is a cost involved there, as well.<\/p>\n Since hubby wants a standard burial I figure we\u2019ll get one plot and do a two for one! \u00a0We have set up a meeting next week with our city cemetery to get additional information. Thinking about tombstones led me to ponder about the discoveries we make on Find-A-Grave and Billion Graves.\u00a0 For example, I know I have a distant cousin buried in a cemetery but the family couldn\u2019t afford a stone so there is no visible sign of the interment.\u00a0 The individual has a memorial on Find-A-Grave but no place of burial is listed. \u00a0That will be problematic for future genealogists!<\/p>\n I have also found a family member who has two stones in two different cemeteries.\u00a0 Since obviously one cannot be buried in two places at one time there\u2019s a problem here!\u00a0 Turns out that the first stone was inscribed with the name and birthdate of the individual while married to wife 1.\u00a0 Individual decided after marrying wife 2 to be buried elsewhere.\u00a0 Without checking the cemetery records you don\u2019t know for sure where the individual was buried.\u00a0Yet another reason to seek more than online sources!<\/p>\n Do your descendants a favor and leave no genealogy mysteries about your life!<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> http:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/celebrity-news\/news\/this-woman-chose-death-over-voting-for-trump-or-clinton-in-funny-obit-w207281<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2015\/07\/01\/obituary-two-words-doug-died_n_7710444.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 23 June 2016. My friends and colleagues like to kid me about my genealogy passion and my organizational skills by asking if I\u2019ve already written my own obituary.\u00a0 My reply is always, \u201cI haven\u2019t \u2013 yet!\u201d\u00a0 I really will, though, and just might get a start on it this summer. … Continue reading “Death and the Genealogist”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[317,190,316],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archiving","tag-archiving-records","tag-death","tag-pre-burial-arrangements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMy mom was a product of the Great Depression and would have been very pleased when a small check was sent to me several weeks after her cremation – she had earned a rebate. \u00a0Perfect last business transaction!<\/p>\n
\nThen we have to decide on the marker. \u00a0Wow, designing a tombstone is a whole other area where I get to be creative!\u00a0 Click to view some genealogist<\/a>\u00a0epitaphs I came across this week.<\/p>\n