Tombstone Tuesday, Vol. 1

Well, I've been a member of genea-blogger since last summer and I'm only just now motivated enough to do one of their prompts. If you've never checked out genea-blogger before, you'll find a link on the left and they are also on Facebook. I highly recommend joining, even if you aren't really a blogger and are only interested in genealogy. They are a very worthwhile group and the only reason I haven't done any of their prompts before is because I'm lazy. Here is my first Tombstone Tuesday post! Yay me!



Sorry the picture isn't very good quality but my camera sucks (can you recommend any brands?). I took this at Woodbridge Masonic Cemetery back in August of last year. He is actually one of several family members of mine buried there. Remember the projects post where I mentioned a covered wagon journal? Well, I was talking about his journal. He was my ggggrandfather, John R. Shinn. He was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1823 to John and Elizabeth Asay Shinn and first came to California in 1850. He farmed a little and then went back to New Jersey where he got married and had my gggrandfather, Heman Doyle Shinn before coming back to California with his new family in 1854. They settled in San Joaquin Co. and were early grape farmers there. The family homestead still is farmed and in Shinn hands over a hundred and fifty years later!