I was born in Dubuque Iowa but moved around to Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Marion Iowa over the years. I am a hardened genealogy bug who has been at it almost 40 years. I am now teaching and working professionally in that field. I love what I have been able to discover on the Find A Grave site and so I have started to contribute to share with others. I started buying antique photos off of sites like ebay for display in a class I initiated on identification of old photos. I was amazed to find that a number of them are identified well enough that a genealogist can find them and tie them to families. These 1840-1900 Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes and others are usually kept and collected for their artistic value, not for genealogy. I am trying to get them into the hands of relation, but have not had much luck there. My new effort is concentrated on getting the pictures on ancestry or find a grave where family may be able to find them at some point. But, I am only one person with only so much time. I love to find pictures of my ancestors, and it hurts to know that so many of them have 'lost' their family and will not be treasured for what they are.

I was born in Dubuque Iowa but moved around to Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Marion Iowa over the years. I am a hardened genealogy bug who has been at it almost 40 years. I am now teaching and working professionally in that field. I love what I have been able to discover on the Find A Grave site and so I have started to contribute to share with others. I started buying antique photos off of sites like ebay for display in a class I initiated on identification of old photos. I was amazed to find that a number of them are identified well enough that a genealogist can find them and tie them to families. These 1840-1900 Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes and others are usually kept and collected for their artistic value, not for genealogy. I am trying to get them into the hands of relation, but have not had much luck there. My new effort is concentrated on getting the pictures on ancestry or find a grave where family may be able to find them at some point. But, I am only one person with only so much time. I love to find pictures of my ancestors, and it hurts to know that so many of them have 'lost' their family and will not be treasured for what they are.