I'm glad it's not just me ...
The children in our local primary school are always amazed the first time they're told that the former headteacher of the school is buried in the churchyard next door. Again, there's some sort of connection that happens, a sense of continuity. Then as you say there are the stories. I hadn't realised until this summer just past, when I took a proper look around that churchyard, that there is a section given over to WW2 graves. There are a dozen or more, mostly from the first couple of years of the war IIRC. Somehow seeing them there made it more real than any cenotaph I've ever stood in front of. And they are obviously still being tended - the churchyard is well cared for but these displayed a level of care well beyond the norm.
If we eventually all end up being cremated, will our next generation lose all sense of where they came from?
Anyway, I think we're topic-drifting ...