Congratulations, and thank you to Bill McKern, our latest spotlighted member! Recently, Bill has told us about how his professional life and his passion for Find a Grave® have intertwined with his travels and his own family history, as well as local history, lineage societies, and more, to make an impact on his life and the lives of others.
I’ve always been interested in history, primarily the military and political history of New York, where I’m from originally, and Vermont, which was my home state when I was a teenager and became my home again in 1990.
I was a member of the National Guard from 1982 to 2017 and began working as a full-time member in 2000. When I was serving in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, I read a magazine article that indicated the historian of the U.S. Senate had recently come into possession of photos of several senators for whom she previously had no likeness on file. The historian was searching for the likenesses of 35 or so senators whose portraits or photos she still did not possess. I offered to help and began using some of my off-duty time to do so. By searching online, contacting librarians, and so on, I was able to find 7 or 8 more photos and portraits.
When I got home from Iraq, I took a month of leave before I started my new military assignment in Vermont. By then, I was aware of Find a Grave from my previous research, so I joined and spent a large part of my leave driving around Vermont to photograph the graves of governors, senators, and members of Congress. It took off from there, working in the D.C. area in 2013, northern Virginia from 2012-2018, and Germany from 2018-2020.
When I was in uniform, I also took part in a lot of military funeral honors for deceased veterans, and when I was at a cemetery where I was helping render honors, I used to take photos of graves that caught my eye, typically those with a veteran marker. These days, when I’m able to go home, I try to fulfill photo requests in central Vermont.
Since I’m working out of state, a lot of my contributions to Find a Grave in recent years have been photographs of individuals who have memorials, especially prominent military and political figures. I do a lot of that online research on nights and weekends. In addition, I’ve provided updates or corrections to biographies of famous individuals and submitted corrections when I’ve discovered misidentified photos.
Family History
Bill’s work with Find a Grave has led to discoveries on both sides of his family. He’s also had the opportunity to help others make meaningful connections to their family history and to U.S. history more broadly.
I had a grand-uncle on my mother’s side, Andrew Engbrecksen, whom I never met. My aunt, my mother’s last surviving sibling, recalls him (her uncle) and said he served in the army during World War II, later had a falling out with the family, and near the end of his life, became something of a recluse. When I looked him up on Find a Grave, I realized that the last name on his gravestone was misspelled. I then contacted the cemetery administrator, who got in touch with the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a corrected headstone.
My sister is a talented amateur genealogist. When she started tracing my family’s tree on my father’s side, we realized that it started in Rhode Island, and after arriving in New York in the 1770s, my ancestors largely stayed in a three-or-four-county area. Based on my sister’s work, I was able to find the cemeteries and photograph many of the graves. Among other things, I was able to combine documentary evidence and grave photos to prove my applications for the Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, and Sons of Union Veterans.
Some memorials for Bill’s relatives connected to these groups can be found here:
Benjamin Greenman Jr.—5x great-grandfather, American Revolution
Reuben Bateman—5x great-grandfather, American Revolution
Stephen Van Rensselaer Bateman—4x great-grandfather, War of 1812
George W. Bateman—great-great-grandfather, American Civil War
Local History
Traveling around Vermont to photograph graves has given Bill knowledge and appreciation of numerous places, as well as the people who have inhabited them.
In 2006, I drove to Chelsea, Vermont, to photograph the grave of Governor Stanley Wilson, who died in 1967. Afterwards, I decided to stop for breakfast. A local came in and started a conversation. I decided to have some fun, so I told him I was in town to visit Stanley Wilson. He said, “What a coincidence. I was just over at his place this morning.” I realized he was the cemetery caretaker, and so we kept the conversation going as though Stanley was still around. “What shape was his place in?” “Oh, you know – well-maintained and looking pretty good after I cut the grass.” Anyone listening in might not have gotten the joke, but because we were both in on it, I had a lot of fun.
I love Hope Cemetery in my hometown of Barre, Vermont. The Barre area is home to a particular type of granite, Barre Gray, which is prized because it’s non-porous and resistant to weathering. Barre was home to a thriving granite industry in the late 1880s and 1900s. Hope Cemetery requires that monuments be made of gray granite, and because so many sculptors lived in Barre, there are many unique grave markers here. Many are more work of art than headstone. Many of the granite workers were from Italy, so Catholic iconography is typically found.
Find a Grave’s impact reaches far beyond cemeteries
I took a couple of photographs in North Macedonia when I was there for military duty. One was the grave of Goce Delchev, who is considered the founding father of both North Macedonia and Bulgaria. Another was Boris Trajkovski, a popular president who was killed in a plane crash. Researching these individuals and asking my hosts in Macedonia to help me find the gravesites helped us form connections through our shared interests in history and had a positive impact on our working relationships.
I began contributing to Find a Grave in part to keep my research and writing skills sharp. Trying to create accurate bios or trying to find a likeness of a memorial subject can sometimes be a challenge. I continue to contribute in part for those reasons – my job as an army instructor relies heavily on research and writing, so anything I can do to stay current is useful. Since beginning with Find a Grave, I’ve also contributed to Wikipedia and authored several magazine articles. I’ve contributed to army doctrinal publications and taught U.S. history at the community college level. All of those activities benefit from my work on Find a Grave.
Bill, we are appreciative of your efforts and the efforts of all Find a Grave volunteers. This work connects us as a community as we help one another and also allows people everywhere to discover information about those who have passed on.
Do you know a Find a Grave member who would make a good Volunteer of the Month? We welcome your suggestions. Please send an email with details of their work to feedback@findagrave.com.