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This is the bio I wrote for The Graveyard Rabbit....
"All cemeteries are extremely valuable archives of history, as well as memorials to the people who are buried there."Hello, my name is Jacquie Wilson and my blog is Stone Gardens. My blog is basically a photo blog of all the cemeteries I have visited with local history and genealogy mixed in.
Although most of my blog entries concern Texas (near 100 cemeteries visited), I have photographed over 100 cemeteries in 15 other states and three foreign countries. I want to show viewers that cemeteries are great places full of history and architecture.
I try to visit cemeteries on a regular basis. Even when I go out-of-state, I try to find cemeteries along my route. Several times, I have turned around in the middle of the road if I passed by a cemetery. A fun, yet at times, dangerous obsession!
I have not always been drawn to cemeteries. As a child, I went to cemeteries for the occasional family funeral but never gave a thought about the surroundings. At the age of seven, my family moved to Wells, Vermont, where our house was directly across from the town cemetery. It was a small town with not much for kids to do, and so my siblings and I would play in the cemetery. We enjoyed tracing the headstones (that dated back to the 1700s) and playing hide-and-seek at night.
In 2007, I went out with a photographer friend to do some Texas landscape photography. We stopped at one cemetery and that is when and where my fascination with cemeteries truly began!
Since I am the unofficial family historian; I see it as one of my responsibilities to visit cemeteries. I have been interested in my family’s history since I was a young child. I remember badgering my grandmother with “who was who” and “how are they related” questions. I take great pleasure in looking at photos, especially old family photos. Searching for and discovering my ancestors and learning about their lives is another thrill for me. Over the past 35 years, I have researched & compiled over four volumes of information on the Cooke and Demsky families.
I work in Austin, Texas. I have a B.A. degree in Historical Studies, and three months ago, I received a M.L.S. degree in Library & Information Studies. My dream is to become a genealogy and local history librarian. At this time, library jobs, especially those pertaining to genealogy, are extremely difficult to find. So, I have been joining local, county, state and national historical and genealogical societies as a way to network, volunteer and learn. When I do experience any free time, I enjoy traveling, scrapbooking, the metaphysical and reading.
I am a member of the Association for Graveyard Studies, Save Austin's Cemeteries, GenealogyWise, Austin Genealogical Society, Texas State Genealogical Society and the Williamson County Genealogical Society.
I am also a Find a Grave photo volunteer, Family Search indexer, Flickr photo contributor and Ancestry.com subscriber.
