What is the difference? Both hobbies are trying to accomplish the same thing. They are trying to build a bond between the living and the dead; between the past and the future. Sometimes I think the adversary uses one to focus on evil instead of focusing on messages from our angel ancestors. That's just my opinion.
With searching for Ancestors, I've had a lot of great luck. Learning about different sources, using technology, mingling family lore all together, we've been able to put together some pretty fantastic puzzles, bringing a lot of comfort to those who yearn for a link to the past.
One of the best tools a genealogist can use is findagrave.com - because unlike family lore and "...well, it's true because Grandma told us...", the data is right on the headstone. So why all the rush to gather information off of headstones? Blame it on the elements, acid rain, time, wrong type of stone for the headstone resulting in an disintegration of a monument, something far worse is coming and Genealogists need your help to go to cemeteries and preserve the headstones with digital images. Why? When a cemetery runs out of room, it has been documented that they remove the headstones, and bury the next generation right over the top of them, saving space and making room for the "new" dead. What happens to those headstones? See below!
In 2010 several mud covered white headstones were found stacked in a stream from Arlington Cemetery were awaiting being ground up and recycled. http://www.kltv.com/story/11234835/grave-markers-being-recycled
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/16/AR2010061605411.html
In Texas, the following discovery was made:
http://www.kltv.com/story/11234835/grave-markers-being-recycled
Texas cemetery lets families know before they recycle headstones
However some people make their living recycling headstones and do not see the need to preserve them or restore them. They try to put a positive spin on a genealogist's nightmare. So now you see my ghost hunting nightmare - the necessity of volunteers is great to document the correct birth dates and death dates for our posterity to align their feelings with the ancestors of the past. They can use those dates to look up what was happening in the town at that time, see the clothing worn, what tools they had to work with, and maybe, perhaps not feel so entitled. Maybe they will feel grateful for the sacrifices their forefathers made for their lives.
http://www.vastpublicindifference.com/2008/09/recycled-tombstones.html
Some people try to put a positive spin on recycling headstones
So that brings me to reverse-forensic genealogy. A friend had a picture of a family from the early 1900s but had lost track with the family 50 years ago. She wanted me to find someone, a direct descendant to that family so that she could send them a picture of their family. I traced the family back to Philadelphia and, using Ancestry, Facebook, and google, within one hour was able to find a relative who was a descendant. It got me to thinking. I was able to give a family a picture - what If I was able to communicate with a spirit and bring their family a spiritual message?
So just for fun, we planned a trip to the Grand Hotel in Jerome, AZ. This hotel has been written about in books, is talked about on television and youtube. If I had seen this video taken by the travel channel, I may not have gone because, even though I am surrounded by my own ancestors and angels who would never hurt me when I am sleeping, I am not so sure that giving up my free agency in a purportedly haunted hotel is a good thing.
It took a long time to get up there. On the 17 northbound, there was a truck on fire on the side of the road and all of the traveling Arizonians came to a screeching halt as if they were pouting they weren't invited to a marshmallow toasting party. There were times my phone said "no service" but we got there safely.
from my journal 3/25/2016.....
So apparently this hotel has been in Ghost Adventures and is the most active haunted place in America. We did not encounter a scary ghost but quite a chatty one. (She says sitting in the dark at 2:45 am because something or someone touched her foot and woke her up). Unfortunately, she was probably annoyed and bored with us because we were so completely amazed we would go blank at what yes and no questions we could ask.
We felt strange from the moment we entered the old fashioned manually operated elevator. There is definitely a unique feeling like if you had too much caffeine. Head felt buzzy, ears ringing, goosebumps all over from head to toe and kind of like 1 million indiscernible whispers in the ears ringing. Took some pictures of our room. Old fashioned antiques meets Restoration Hardware. So basically a pretty nice room. We had a garden room #37A. Which, since it used to be a tuberculosis asylum, it had like a sunny glassed in garden with fake plants and upgraded outdoor yard furniture attached to our room with French doors. Ted is a more sensitive to these things than I am and could actually tell when someone was close to him before the meter would go bezerk. I stepped out there and immediately felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck then the goose bumps all over. I looked at him and he just smiled and nodded,"they're here!" In that creepy Poltergeist-esque singsong way.
We have a Youtube channel with a few of the videos on it....
I took several pictures out there and did see one orb float across my lens, of course, after the flash went off but then later I saw that I captured it. So we got out our EVP meters and coincidentally both would register the same impulses of lights ranging on the inevitability scale from 2 or green, or "There's no ghosts and no such thing as a haunted house" to 20+ RED on the meter or "Ask her how Grampa is doing? How many holes in one has he achieved?" What we gleaned from the experience is a resounding scientifically and fact based "Heck yeah there's ghosts here".
We discerned that she was indeed a she and a former nurse here raised in this town who liked to talk. We got several instances on video of red metered responses up to 20+ on the Gauss meter. So we turned off the meter and crashed until now at 2:45 while I am sitting here texting you in the dark while watching the meter rainbow itself all over the room from green to red. My plan was to try to get a name and a message and find her family and let them see the documentation that she is in a safe wonderful place and happy. Did not get a name. You can't get a name from yes and no questions.
So I'll get one more picture or two before I have to get some more shut eye and bolster myself for a scary grandma Easter egg adventure with the grandkids tomorrow in Prescott. There are definitely some strange noises here and always followed by some sort of light flash on the meter. I asked her or it to turn on the flashlight to my iPhone and pointed to the button. Nothing happened so I went to the other side of the room and when I came back it was on. I have no explanation for that.
3/26/2016
We got some videos and pictures and I put them on our youtube.com site - youtube.com/genealogymama1 or here is the one with the orb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY-4SRZJMEo&feature=youtu.be
This is our Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCofRNHcpvEvsBp9YVQtcI6A
let me know what you think.
