Last week, while listening to one of the many genealogy podcasts I subscribe to, I heard about an organization called “Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness” (RAOGK.org). I decided to investigate. RAOGK volunteers agree to do a free genealogy research task at least once per month in their local area as an act of kindness. RAOGK is a global volunteer organization with over 4000 volunteers. After reading about them on the website, I decided to give it a try.

I sent an email to Jack Stanton, a New Hampshire volunteer in the Manchester area and asked if he would be willing to photograph a grave where I knew two Great Aunts were buried. I even knew the plot locations. I heard back from Jack in just a few hours. He said he would be glad to help. I had told him that I was hoping that this grave would lead me to other relatives who might be buried in the Old St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Bedford, NH. There are no online indexes of the Cemetery and the office staff seems a bit too busy to be able to do long family surname searches. I knew that two sides of my father’s family come from nearby Manchester, NH. Since the two great Aunts were buried there, it was only logical that other members of the family might be buried there too.

Well, right off the bat, he floored me by sending me an Excel spreadsheet of people buried there with the last names of Sheehan and Hayes, the two surnames of my father’s family. I spent several hours analyzing the data and found that indeed there WERE other relatives buried there.

Based on the spreadsheet, I sent him a list of three or four graves that I would like to have photographed. The next day he sent me back five photographs, three of which, in the end, turn out to be related to my family.

But the special treat came in the very first photograph I opened. It not only contained the name of one of the great Aunts, it also contained the names, years of birth and years of death for my great, great grandfather, Jeremiah D. Sheehan, his wife, one of his sons and a baby that died at birth. Strangely, the other Great Aunt known to be buried there is not listed on the stone.

• See the pictures at HayesFamily.us

Now… could it get any better? Absolutely! The grave also had an inscription. “A Member of Company K, 10th Regiment, N.H. Volunteers”. With that info and a quick Google-ing, I found a plethora of information on the 10th Regiment and their activities during the Civil War. I even found many specific references to my Great, Great, Grandfather. What a great topic for a school report for one of my kids!

Thank you Jack and thank you Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness! You really made my week!