My name is Cheryl Harris and I live in Albuquerque, NM. I have longed to finish my personal genealogy for over 15 years but not had much luck. And because of that, I decided to do something that would help others in their search for parents, siblings, grandparents, great grandparents and all those that have been lost through death.
In 2001 I started the volunteer group Tombstone Transcription Project for New Mexico. I have a solid group of volunteers that have worked continuously since 2001 gathering information from every death source we can find. We have walked cemeteries and written down every tombstone/headstone we found. We have visited cemeteries that have only one visible stone left after a hundred years of weather. We have gathered more than 900 sources of information from the Special Collections Library listing mortuary, death certificate and family information.
Our group has gathered over 350,000 names in our eight years of work. All of this is eventually transcribed and posted to the internet for the world to see.
During the hot summer months here in the desert, as well as when there is snow on the ground, you will find our group in the library. The rest of the time we are joyously walking cemeteries writing down information. We love to be outside!
My wonderful group of volunteers has persevered through wind, sprinklers, mud, holes, drunks, stones that are almost totally unreadable, freezing temperature or unbearable heat. These people are heroes in my mind and I'd like to list them here for all to give them thanks. Some of my dedicated volunteers are:
Wink Winkeljohn
Gloria Henderson
Betty Lamberti
B.J. Minshall
Barbara Borowy
Richard Harris
With this blog, I would like to keep you informed of our progress as well as any surprises we come across. If you would like information, or any of the names we've found, please contact me through posting comments.
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