Such nice words came in an email today:

I do not travel without checking your photo requests; when I am near one of yours, I get it.  I do not put forth the effort for just anyone.  Your effort on the Huffords is important work in my mind, and I hope to see it completed.

Those words came from a findagrave photo volunteer.  I hope I live up to his opinion.

Findagrave.com allows two groups to come together to dance, even though we never meet one another. One group enjoys photographing gravestones in cemeteries; the other group is into genealogy.

Because of findagrave photo volunteers whom I’ve never met, I’ve been able to verify information and open up several HUFFORD lines, all over the USA.  There have been findagrave volunteers many states away who have done more than photograph gravestones:  One in California has frequently checked records in a local courthouse.  Another in California checked old newspapers from the 1800s to find what happened to a Hufford woman.

On findagrave, people often use pseudonyms.  Here are some of the volunteers who have extended themselves and helped with this study of the descendants of Christian Hufford born 1716 in Schwaigern: Barbara Nicholson, Bev Poling, Bob Brown, Cameron-Ashley Heath, Cami, Cindy Baldogo, Deb, dscott, Erich, Gravehunter1963, Jean Fremion McKibben, Jen Snoots, J.Sullivan, jsf1, Kevin & Georgetta, kimboyd-ellis, Larry A. Smith, Lavidaloca, Law-Miller Roots, Linda Huffman Powell, Linda Lacy, Lulabell, LV BRMNS, Michele, mutchmj, Nynaeve, rakjr, Rick France, ROB HUGHES, Sandra Bessent, Steve McCray, svh77, The Guardian, tut.

And there have been others, whose names have slipped through the cracks.

These people are complete volunteers, only a few are also Hufford descendants:  They have donated their time, the use of their cars, their gas, use of their cameras, use of their computers and internet access.  They have put out a good chunk of change, time, and work to do field work that I could not possibly have done.

At least one man did this volunteer work at a time when he was unemployed and could not find work during the economic collapse that began in 2008.  Genealogists owe a deep debt to the WPA researchers and scribes of the “Great Depression” of the 1930s.  In the future, genealogists will owe a deep debt to countless unnamed findagrave volunteers.

Christian Hufford’s descendants through his great-grandchildren are listed HERE, with links to findagrave entries when burial site is known.