In the far northeast corner of the El Carmelo Cemetery in Pacific Grove, California is an older columbarium that contains the remains of Ralph Lowry and his wife Gladys.

Ralph is my first cousin, 3x removed; this makes him my great grandfather Charles’ first cousin. It’s doubtful that Ralph and Charles ever met. Ralph spent his entire life living on the West Coast, and after his father moved West through Missouri, Colorado, and Washington in the late 1870’s, he never went back (that I can determine).

During a recent vacation, we were staying just a few miles away from El Carmelo, and figuring it would be years before I got back, Eileen and I detoured. Even on vacation, genealogy isn’t far from my mind.