I’m an amateur genealogist. I love researching my family tree. I started my tree back in the mid-1990’s. My goal was to create a tree for the twins, so I started tracing my tree, together with Rich’s tree. Rich’s ancestors have turned out to be much more interesting than mine, although his mother Velda was not always happy with the dirt I dug up… All 4 of Rich’s grandparents’ ancestors trace back to colonial America; one branch all the way back to the Mayflower!
Although most of my family did not arrive in the States that early, I do have one line that also descends from the Mayflower! My grandmother Helen (Purdy) Winterkorn is a Mayflower descendant. I have been able to prove both of our lineages, and we are now members of the Massachusetts Chapter of the General Mayflower Society. Pretty cool, especially in Massachusetts. I’ve found so much interesting information on my grandmother’s side of my tree. I sure wish I knew some of this when she was alive. She would have loved this stuff!
Of course, since I love family history, I also enjoy exploring cemeteries. I had a chance recently to travel down ‘memory lane’ when my friend Susan visited from Florida. We took a drive down to Waltham and explored Mt. Feake Cemetery. Her parents and my grandparents Bela and Helen Winterkorn are buried there. Mt. Feake is a HUGE cemetery and I had some trouble finding Bela and Helen. Luckily, I knew their general location, but they were still hard to find. Finally, I spotted the unusual name “Bela” and there they were. Had to clean up the stone a bit. Obviously, no one had visited in a while.
A little side tip for family history fans… You can’t always go by what is “written in stone.” The information is only as good as the person providing it. Turns out my father thought my grandmother was born in 1910. She was actually born July 23, 1909. We laugh about this now, since my grandmother always lied about her age.
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