SO MUCH TO LEARN!

((Important correction at the end of the post!))

This is one of those stories that has me slapping myself up the side of the
head and saying ":DUH!"

Bear with me and you'll understand why.

I spent many days this past summer taking photographs of headstones at
the local cemeteries annd that lead me to Find A Grave which is a great
website and help for genealogists. I plan to upload all the usable photos
I took there(some aren't usable and will be deleted. I'm still learning) and
I've become a volunteer, taking pictures of headstones for relatives who
request them.

One such request was for a group of headstones at the Hanover, Ma.
Center Cemetery of Barstow family members. I managed to find and
post ten of the requests to Find A Grave but didn't give much thought
to it when I did it other than fulfilling the requests

Another routine I've gotten into is to post the birth, wedding, and death
anniversaries of my ancestors as Facebook updates. The hope is that by
doing so I'll make a cousin connection with one of my genealogy friends.
Well today was the 372nd birthday of 7x great grandfather Robert
Barrows and after I'd posted that on Facebook I took a look at what I
had for sources for him and his family. One of these was his daughter
in law, Patience Simmons, whose mother was named Patience Barstow
and whose grandfather was William Barstow, one of the original settlers
of...Hanover, Ma. He built the first bridge over the North River and
had the second shipyard in the area.

I knew nothing of those accomplishments until today, nor did I realize
when I took those pictures of the Barstow headstones in the Hanover
Center Cemetery that they were possibly relatives.

To be honest, I have so many lines in my family tree it's hard to keep track
of some of the older ones. And I know most genealogists concentrate on
just a few lines.


But there's all this fascinating STUFF out there to learn about my ancestors!
Not just names and dates but things they've done.

I've said it before,  so many gedcoms, so little time!

And now, I'm adding "so much to learn" to that.

Correction-Earlier this year, Barrows cousin Martin Hollick sent me
a copy of an article he wrote about the Barrows family which disproves 
the earlier information I had that Robert Barrows was born on 5Nov 
1639 in Salem, Ma. He probably was born about 1641, perhaps in
Plymouth. While I'd  made the correction in one database, I hadn't yet
done so in the one I use for the birthdays calendar. That correction has 
now been made. Thanks, Martin!