{"id":4544,"date":"2013-09-03T15:23:29","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T15:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=4544"},"modified":"2020-06-05T13:36:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T17:36:16","slug":"top-genealogy-websites-pt-6-search-cemeteries-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/top-genealogy-websites-pt-6-search-cemeteries-online.html","title":{"rendered":"Top Genealogy Websites, Pt. 6: Search Cemeteries Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago I wrote about online cemetery records (See: Top Genealogy Websites, Pt. 3: Burial & Cemetery Records<\/a>). In that article I wrote about the U.S. Veterans Administration\u2019s Nationwide Gravesite Locator, Find-A-Grave, and BillionGraves.<\/p>\n

Now I want to show how you can help your family history research by using information from these three websites: Find-A-Grave<\/a>, GenealogyBank<\/a> and Nationwide Gravesite Locator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As shown in my earlier blog article, I gave Find-A-Grave a try by registering and adding the tombstone photo of my great-grandfather John Henry Kemp (1866-1944)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Registering with Find-A-Grave triggered a mini-avalanche of requests by family members and genealogists from around the country asking if I could take photos of their relatives\u2019 tombstones at cemeteries in my local area. In the past week I\u2019ve received almost 20 requests so far and they are still coming in: requests for me to take photos of gravestones in cemeteries all around my county.<\/p>\n

Find-A-Grave has a \u201cRequest A Photo<\/a>\u201d feature that lets you ask nearby genealogists to take a photo of your target ancestor\u2019s tombstone and post it to Find-A-Grave.<\/p>\n

\"screenshot<\/a>
Credit: Find-A-Grave<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So I decided to give it a try and volunteered to be a gravesite photographer.<\/p>\n

I received a request to photograph the tombstone of Daniel J. Clifford. They said that he was buried at the Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1997.<\/p>\n

First, I did a quick search on GenealogyBank<\/a> and immediately pulled up Clifford\u2019s obituary, giving me more details about him. He was 86 years old when he died and yes, he was buried in the Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery.<\/p>\n

\"obituary<\/a>
Hartford Courant Obituary<\/a> (Hartford, Connecticut), 25 October 1997, page B3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next, I searched Nationwide Gravesite Locator<\/a> to get a quick summary of Clifford\u2019s military service and burial site.<\/p>\n

\"screenshot<\/a>
Credit: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It shows that he was a Tec 5 in the U.S. Army and served in WWII. It also tells us that he was buried in Section 81-G, Site 02 in the State Veterans Cemetery.<\/p>\n

That is a great feature of the network of military cemeteries: service members are not buried randomly\u2014they are buried in neat, orderly rows. With that section and site number it is easy to go directly to Daniel Clifford\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n

So\u2014I headed out this morning to do just that. Armed with my iPad, I went to see if I could actually do this. As you drive into the cemetery you can see the small markers indicating the sections. There was Section 81-G.<\/p>\n

Walking the rows I was able to quickly find tombstone 02 in Section 81-G. Notice that the stones have the location code engraved on the back of the tombstone.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Credit: Thomas Jay Kemp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Simple.<\/p>\n

Here is his gravestone.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Credit: Thomas Jay Kemp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sharp, clear and easy to read.<\/p>\n

Find-A-Grave, Nationwide Gravesite Locator and GenealogyBank are essential tools genealogists rely on to get details of the lives of every member of their family.<\/p>\n

Now\u2014another word. I took these tombstone photos for Find-A-Grave with my iPad.<\/p>\n

Imagine that.<\/p>\n

When I first looked at an iPad<\/a> I could see no practical value in having one. I could do everything I needed with my laptop\u2014why would I need this extra tool? I quickly found that its always-on Apple software lets me check e-mail anytime, without having to wait for the laptop to crank up.<\/p>\n

Now I see that it can actually take photos. Good ones, too.<\/p>\n

It was easy to work with. When using it at the cemetery I could easily see the tombstone in the full screen image. It was even easier to frame the photo and to take the picture.<\/p>\n

Wow. That was simple.<\/p>\n

I have been working on my family history for the past 50 years. There\u2019s always something new to learn.<\/p>\n

Last year I learned how to text, to keep in touch with the kids\u2014and now I have an iPad.<\/p>\n

Couple this technology with such core tools as Find-A-Grave, Nationwide Gravesite Locator and GenealogyBank, and it\u2019s clearly \u201cA Great Day for Genealogy!\u201d<\/p>\n

Read these other blog articles about top genealogy websites:<\/p>\n

Top Genealogy Websites, Pt. 1: Google<\/a><\/p>\n

Top Genealogy Websites, Pt. 2: Google Books & Internet Archive<\/a><\/p>\n

Top Genealogy Websites, Pt. 3: Burial & Cemetery Records<\/a><\/p>\n

Top Genealogy Websites, Pt. 4: BillionGraves Smartphone App for Finding Graves<\/a><\/p>\n

Top Genealogy Websites, Pt. 5: State Vital Records in the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago I wrote about online cemetery records (See: Top Genealogy Websites, Pt. 3: Burial & Cemetery Records). In that article I wrote about the U.S. Veterans Administration\u2019s Nationwide Gravesite Locator, Find-A-Grave, and BillionGraves. Now I want to show how you can help your family history research by using information from these three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[5,2585,4824,1102,4821,521,4823,1129,1658,2233,4670,1661,1758,15,4820,4396,4397,2191,4665,3358,1199,1070,4815,1084,2597,5426,5430,5438,5444,5446,4394,4678,4668,4692,4822,1130,1739,5455,2428],"class_list":["post-4544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-books","tag-cemeteries","tag-clifford","tag-connecticut","tag-connecticut-state-veterans-cemetery","tag-ct","tag-daniel-j-clifford","tag-family","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-find-a-grave","tag-genealogybank-2","tag-grandfather","tag-graves","tag-graveyards","tag-headstones","tag-historic-cemeteries","tag-history","tag-john-henry-kemp","tag-kemp","tag-middletown","tag-military","tag-nationwide-gravesite-locator","tag-obituaries","tag-photos","tag-records","tag-research","tag-software","tag-technology","tag-thomas","tag-tombstones","tag-top-genealogy-websites","tag-u-s-department-of-veterans-affairs","tag-u-s-veterans-administration","tag-united-states-army","tag-veterans","tag-vital-records-2","tag-websites","tag-wwii"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}