100 POSTS - ANOTHER MILESTONE - OVER 26,000 VIEWS

The story I posted this morning about Louis and Benjamin Bernstein was the 100th story I have posted to this blog.  I started this blog on September 20, 2011 to share the interesting stories I have come across while doing cemetery photography and genealogy research.  To date, this blog has been viewed over 26,000 times.  A pornography blog could rack up that many views in one day, but it's not bad for a special interest blog like this one.

The story that has received the most views is the one about Fanny's Restaurant in Evanston, Illinois - 578 page views.  Fanny still has quite a following!

I have had viewers outside the US from Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Sweden, Ukraine, India and Australia.  My articles have generated 119 Comments - 118 of which were positive. (You can't please everyone).  The story with the most comments was "Tainted Caviar and Body Snatching" about Dr. Michael N. Regent. Must have been the catchy title.

I love "digging" into the stories of these people - mostly just regular people like you and me.  I have been contacted on numerous occasions by the families of people I have written about, and with one exception they have been very pleased and gratified that I have told the story of their family.  They have kindly corrected my factual errors but often have commented that I told them things they didn't even know about their own families.

Some people have chosen to express their comments offline, and that's fine with me, but I think I was most affected by the comment I received about Philip Comfort Starr from his niece Sarah:

Dear Jim, 

By coincidence I have been reading Wade Davis' "Into the Silence, the Great War, Mallory,and the Conquest of Everest." Reading about the trenches caused me to think about my great uncle, Lt. Philip Comfort Starr. As I was growing up, I heard his name mentioned with such reverence and respect that I was shy to ask very much about him, and though I knew that he went to Canada and was killed in the war, that was all. Of course his photograph hung in an honored place in my grandfather's (his brother) house, and my uncle was named for him. Still, I knew so little, and now my grandparents have passed away, too. Reading this book moved me to search for information on the web, and I found your article. Thank you for the work you are doing and know that it means so very much, not just for history, but for the very people like myself, who would want to pass this information down along the generations. I am very grateful. 

My very warm regards, Sarah Elizabeth Starr,

That is truly the reason for this blog:  To tell the stories of those who have gone before us, not just as history, but so they, and their stories, will not be forgotten.  I have tried very hard to not pass judgement on any of the people I write about, realizing that the road they took must have seemed to them the only option available.

Thank you to my twenty-four (!!!) loyal followers, and the hundreds who stop in now and then.  Thank you  also to all who expressed sympathy over the loss of my beloved Lucy.

I have many more stories in the hopper, so stay tuned!

Jim Craig

Evanston, Illinois

USA