Congratulations to George and Terrie, the Find a Grave® featured volunteers of the month for February 2022! They are a father/daughter team and have been working for most part in Bergen County, New Jersey but have also photographed in New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina. They have added about 11,000 photos and over 8,000 memorials to the site. Terrie adds that most of the work has been done by her father, George, who has added ninety-nine percent of this information.

George and Terrie have always been interested in headstones as amateur genealogists. They originally joined Find a Grave to research family and like many decided to pay it forward and become photo volunteers. Terrie is amazed at all her father has accomplished and how he has helped others. She shared some of his work with us.

In her words: George is 87 years old and continues to visit cemeteries to pay his respects and add memorials and pictures to Find a Grave. He has been able to stay active and maintain social distancing through the Covid-19 pandemic by walking cemeteries and fulfilling photo requests.

He was able to document all the graves at Our Lady of Angels Cemetery before all were reinterred, many at Maryrest Cemetery in Mahwah, N.J. The burials that were able to be confirmed at Maryrest have been moved to that cemetery on Find a Grave with a note in the bio section stating date of burial and indicating the original interment was at Our Lady of Angels Cemetery. His work has continued and he recognized a couple of duplicate cemeteries in nearby counties and contacted cemetery@findagrave.com to have them merged together. George has also been key in sparking new interest for Find a Grave by giving a presentation and information at a local history club.

We both love that Find a Grave is a collaborative site with so many people sharing.  As is says on our bio, “We don’t own our family history. We simply preserve it for the next generation.” My father has passed on his love for genealogy and cemeteries on to me. We do not live in the same state, but when we see each other it always includes a visit to a cemetery.

It’s wonderful to watch family members sharing their interest in research as they teach other generations, like George sharing his interest and his love of cemeteries with Terrie. They have their shared experiences being together in cemeteries, including those “aha” moments reading an inscription that they didn’t expect. Here you can see where they captured not only headstones in cemeteries, but lovely moments as well.

Our accolades to you for your extraordinary work on the site, in cemeteries, and for the community! We are so glad that you are Find a Grave members and appreciate all your efforts in recording and memorializing those that have passed.

We welcome your suggestions for Volunteer of the Month. If you’d like to submit a volunteer for consideration in future months, please send an email with details of their work to feedback@findagrave.com.