I know I promised the next post would be about Peter and William – I swear it will be the next one – but I need to take a minute here to talk about the kindness of some people.
When I was working on my research of Arrie Burggraaf I received an incredible amount of help from people that had no personal stake in this research, but went out of their way to help me.
There had been a small blurb in one of the newspapers in Sioux County, Iowa, about the death of Arrie. It simply gave me a where and when, so I went in search of a local paper near Running Water, South Dakota. Carol Hagen answered the phone when I called The Springfield Times, and asked for help finding the news article based on the date provided. I asked if they had an archive department and Carol informed me she was the archive department and the editor! She kindly went through the old papers and transcribed the article for me.
Carol then pointed me at people in Bon Homme County that might be able to help me locate the right cemetery. Three phone calls ensued and three different people in Bon Homme County were on the search. While each one thought the other might have the right information, none of them stopped looking. The next day I had a phone call with a cemetery name, and the name and phone number of the head of the cemetery committee.
I called Ron and Lois Hornstra of the Pioneer Cemetery at 3 pm in the afternoon and the next morning I had pictures in my email of Arrie’s gravesite and the cemetery. Complete with directions to locate the grave should I ever be able to visit.
This is the kind of thing that makes genealogy and family history so special. It is amazing that these folks took the time to help me solve a family mystery. I can’t thank them enough for all their help and kindness.