Everything’s Relative: Geranium Genealogy

Each year during Memorial Day weekend, I visit the Farrar family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery. For the past few years, someone had been placing a flower box of geraniums on another Farrar lot and, a couple of weeks later, the box would disappear. I assumed that the groundskeepers were removing the plants, as they do with those not planted in the ground.

During my genealogy research, I discovered how all the Farrars in the cemetery were related. Again this year, the mysterious flower box arrived. Being a good distant cousin, I decided to plant the contents. A week or so later, Alden Farrar returned to retrieve the box and discovered the planted flowers. After talking to the groundskeeper, he discovered our Farrars who are buried in the cemetery, and he was given the name of my uncle who then forwarded Alden’s name on to me. Since then, Alden and I have shared many wonderful family stories.

The whole experience has got to be the strangest way I’ve ever met a cousin!

Linda Greene
Framingham, Mass.