I read somewhere that it's incredibly rare for your name to be commonly remembered by your own family a hundred years or so after your death. Having just dealt with my grandfather's death a few years ago, and knowing nothing about his parents, I can see why this is.
Lesson: Talk to the elders in your family. Let them pass their memories to you, then pass it on to those who come after you.
It seems like they knew that they were going to die and desperately wanted any living relatives to have some tangible memento from them.
And it's natural. Being remembered is all you have, at the end, ultimately. After a while, the only thing left is the mark you carved.
I read somewhere that it's incredibly rare for your name to be commonly remembered by your own family a hundred years or so after your death. Having just dealt with my grandfather's death a few years ago, and knowing nothing about his parents, I can see why this is.
Lesson: Talk to the elders in your family. Let them pass their memories to you, then pass it on to those who come after you.