I'm Not Very Good At This

 Well it's been another long stretch of not blogging.  I'm not very good at this am I?

I took another break from genealogy when I had a 2nd foot surgery right before Labor Day 2024.  I started dabbling again in December 2024 and as the new year rolled around (as is often the case) I had a flurry of genealogy research and activity.

I spent a lot of time on the WikiTree Cemeteris Project working on my adopted cemetery, Gardner Cemetery in Gardner, Kansas (I created this project page). 

I picked this cemetery for one reason only.  I now live in Gardner and it's quite conveniently located to me.  I drove through this cemetery many, many times over the last few years since I moved here while I was playing Pokemon Go (that's a whole other off again, on again hobby of mine!).  As a result of being there I often stopped and got out and roamed among the graveyard reading gravestones and markers.  Frequently, my youngest daughter, Dakota, would join me.  We kind of share an interest in walking cemeteries.  So, being quite familiar, easily accessible, and emotionally detached from this cemetery I chose it.

When I started the project there were around 100 profiles connected to the Gardner Cemetery category on WikiTree. I floundered with the project at first not sure quite where or how to start.  I dug in and did some research and discovered a fantastic webpage on the cemetery association's website listing transcribed burial records from their own records.

My research also led me to the FindAGrave cemetery page for Gardner Cemetery.  Probably the most complete and recent data on the cemetery on the internet at the time.  This site revealed just over 3300 burials listed in the cemetery!  "No way!" I said to myself as my eyes widened.  I didn't think I had bitten off this big of a project.  So it was clear, I was starting with roughly 100 graves on WikiTree and needed to add 3200.  This could very well end up being a lifelong project.  

Well my steps were clear:

1. Find any existing WikiTree profiles that exist and put them in the Gardner Cemetery category.
2. Add any burials from the cemetery burial search tool as new person profiles on WikiTree.
3. Double check for any listed on FindAGrave that are NOT in the Burial Search records and verify by locating actual gravesite and create new person profiles on WikiTree as appropriate.
   
4. Begin walking and taking photographs of gravestones and cemetery photos for upload to profiles and to Cemetery space page.
5. Maintain profiles and research biographies to fill in any missing information not located upon initial profile creation.

So this is the project.  And I have begun.

As of today there are now 241 profiles in Gardner Cemetery on WikiTree. I have added all of the existing profiles I could find on WikiTree.  Step 1 complete.  

On to Step 2.  I am in the beginning stage of getting a process and system down to add the profiles from the burial records search tool.  I found I can simply type the letter "A" into the Surname field and I get all the A surnames.  In 14 days time I have added only 6 new profiles that are relatively well-sourced to the cemetery category.  A bit of simple math reveals at this rate it will take me 20+ YEARS to finish this cemetery.  I ain't got that long.  

So now I am contemplating a better process or at least a more aggressive approach to entering profiles.