Geocaching For the Dead?

I've been thinking about visiting the cemeteries of all of my ancestors on a massive 'round-the-world tour. Wouldn't that be a blast? You know. No making arrangements or coordinating "best times" to visit or asking if there's room to put you up for a night or two. I could call it the "Grateful Dead Tour".

I'd start in Woods Hole, Ma., where Frank's relatives are buried, make my way to the National Cemetery in Otis, Ma., where his dad is, then shoot over to Connecticutt, Wisconsin, Seattle, Hawaii, over to Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Ireland, and England, finally jumping back over the pond to New York and maybe up to Maine before heading home to New Hampshire.

Fun, but today I wanted a story to write. There just isn't one yet. So I let it go and started watching my thoughts meander around. It ended up being a very entertaining adventure. That is if you think like me and are easily amused.

First things first. Monday thru Friday, at 5:45 am,  I start the the 20 minute round-trip to drop my children off in Nashua, using the return trip to think before waking the other school-bound children at 6:05.

But this morning I found myself in a different rental car that my husband had brought home last night. I sat behind the wheel for the first time, familiarizing myself with the dashboard. The GPS stared at me mockingly from my right, glowing in the darkness. As if THAT would entice me to use it!

I don't like GPS. I've never used one. And this one didn't like me. I could tell. It just kept staring. 

I wanted to make friends with it when I remembered hearing that you need one to go geocaching, I thought that maybe I'd have to get one because geocaching has everything I love about life in it: nature, mystery, hiking, searching, and using clues to find answers.

I was thinking about geocaching as we passed the cemetery. The one right down the road where some of my husband's ancestors are buried.

I was putzing around this evening, not knowing what to do with my idle brain.

So I got my 4 generation family history chart out.( Do you want one? It's free to download and $1.99 to print at Staples. Click here if you do. If the link doesn't work look right. There are downloads there, too.)

Before I knew it I was looking at my great great grandparents,  Charles and Anna Sophia Carlson,who came from Sweden and died in Washington State.

You want to know where they're buried? I Googled the cemetery where they were buried because I remembered that much, and this is part of what I found:

 Old Olalla Pioneer Cemetery 

Longitude 122°40'57.7"W Latitude 47°29'31.4"N

GPS coordinates!

I could find my ancestors using a GPS as if I was going geocaching. That thought killed me!

This is what Wikiipeda has to say about geocaching: (I added family history synonyms in parenthesis)

"Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a  (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.

"A typical cache is a small waterproof container (coffin)

containing a logbook ( historical documents)

" Larger containers such as plastic storage containers  or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. (dead people of great value!)

"Geocaching is often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek", sharing many aspects with benchmarking, trigpointing, orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing,  and waymarking (like finding ancestors in all sorts of documents, the ones you have and the ones you find on the internet and elsewhere).

"Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. After 10 years of activity there are over 1.4 million active geocaches published on various websites. There are over 5 million geocachers worldwide. " (millions family history enthusiasts all over the world!)

 Family history is the best sport in the world!

Wanna play?