What Is 'Find-A-Grave'?

Before I actually get into this post this morning, let me tell all of you that we hit our first mile-post! Yesterday we posted our 50th blog entry!

Who said we wouldn't last? tee-hee

Accolades over, I wanted to share a bit of information on one of my favorite websites. http://www.findagrave.com I have to tell you, I visit the site daily. It is as essential to my professional business as Ancestry or World Vital Records .

I have been asked several times, just what is Find A Grave and why is it such a good site?

First, you can look for both famous and non-famous grave sites. There are 25 million-plus non-famous graves listed on Find A Grave.

You can search for a specific cemetery.

You can ADD burial records!

That being said, many have photos of the tombstones, cemeteries, and some even have photographs of the individual persons [not to worry here; photographs taken post-mortem are not allowed!].

You can search their Surname Index.

Even the SSDI [Social Security Death Index].

They even have some wonderful Discussion Forums you can join!

The Find A Grave website lists seven individuals who are behind this phenomenal site:
Jim Tipton - Find A Grave Founder
Russ Dodge - Administrator, Photographer and Biographer
A.J. Marik - Administrator, Editor, Photographer
Katrina M. - "Email Queen"
Tanya Smith - "Email Goddess"
Robert Edwards - Administrator, Editor, Biographer
Deb - Administrator

You can read more about all of these individuals here.

You can even buy Cool Gear when you find that you've become a Find-A-Grave junkie like me!

I highly recommend using this site often. And if you have files that you don't see listed, I encourage you to post them there. We all know that historically a grave marker makes a HUGE statement when performing genealogy. Share what information you have!

Until next time, go check out this site, add a few of your files and consider returning often to do the same.

cbh