Susan Jane Kifer Appleby
I had been told that my g-g-grandmother, Susan Jane Kifer Appleby, was buried at Riverside Cemetery. I had been there about three times and had never found the grave. On my next trip, my daughter went with me. This was her first experience of looking for graves at a cemetery. My goal that day was to find that grave!! We walked into the cemetery and I went directly to the graves of my g-grandparents and started looking again. My daughter said, "Mom, what is that name again?" I told her, she took two steps and turned around and said, "Here it is." The stone is about four feet tall, not one you could easily over look. Sure enough it was the right one. Why hadn't I seen it before? I think that the answer is this: my daughter's name is also Susan. I believe that the older Susan was calling out to the younger Susan, "Here I am."When my daughter was born and I named her Susan, I had no knowledge of this g-g-grandmother. I have other ancestors named Susan or Susannah of whom I had no knowledge when my daughter was born. My daughter's middle name is Elizabeth and I cannot tell you how many ancestors I have with that name. Why did I name her Susan Elizabeth? No one in our immediate family has either of those names. I have to go back at least four generations from my daughter before they start showing up. My two sons have family names; one is a junior and the other is named for my two grandfathers.
Margaret McCleskey, Arlington, TX