The first document above contains the log entry from the Unger Horner funeral home in Rochelle, Illinois, listing my great great great grandfather, Ole Finnestad Sr. Ole is listed by counting to the 17th position.
The second document contains the log entry from the Unger Horner funeral home which helped me to track down the gravesite for Mari Finnestad. Mari is listed by counting to the 11th position. Spelling errors didn't help my search.
Without Unger Horner's records, and their willingness to put up with my incessant calls over a 9 month period attempting to track down Ole Sr, I would never have been able to locate Mari and Ole Sr Finnestad.
I guess having been an investigator for over 20 years was a big help in tracking down this information. Plus a keen interest in history and genealogy.
Update: 9/26/2009
The "ordered by" indicates a "Mrs. Vallem". It wasn't until several months later I discovered that "Mrs. Vallem" was Ole and Mari's daughter, Rachel.
The "Vallem" name, shows up on a grave site next to Ole and Mari and also on the 1900 plat map for the Alta township. Who knew?
The interesting thing with tracing one's genealogy, is that things do not happen sequentially. Names that appear next to your ancestors on plat maps, census records, and cemetery plots/records are often somehow related.
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