Budding Genealogists: cemeteries

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Cemeteries

Cemeteries are everywhere. I've noticed over the years how many will take time during the summer months to visit family, both living and passed on.

I recall our sons assisting over memorial day with placing American Flags on the graves of veterans who had passed away. They were return home being uplifted from the experience. One's final resting place is usually all that is visible to show of your stay here on this earth.

In research, we often find a missing date or name on them and other times we are lucky to get more. With all of the wonderful tools available to us today, taking photos of these graves and uploading them to either FindAGrave or Billion Graves is a wonderful help to many who may be looking for the grave of the one you uploaded.

As you travel from town to town, you'll find some in the most unlikely of places, but they are there waiting to be found. Overseas, many of them are very difficult to read because of weather and the number of years they have been standing. Fortunately, back in the 1970s, many of the historical societies started taking an inventory of those in the cemeteries born before 1850. Later they went back and retrieved the rest. Those entries are called "Monumental Inscriptions" and can be found through the Family History Library's catalog. Depending on the copyright they may be available online!

We send our thanks to all who are helping by uploading of the tombstones around the world to share with all. Some cemeteries have posted their own lists of who is buried in their area; it's worth checking it out if you don't find it listed in either FindMyGrave or BillionGraves.

Note there is an index to Billion Graves on FamilySearch. DeceasedOnline is a paid site, however, they are considered "the central database for UK burials and

cremations.

To find other locations where there are listings for your ancestral area, be sure to check the FamilySearch Research Wiki as well as Cindy's List.

Enjoy this and many other websites already discussed in past blog articles.

Comments Are Always Welcome!

Building Bridges for All Generations!

Claire
Timeless Genealogies
We're Your Family is "No. 1"

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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Website: DeathIndexes.com

Unfortunately, death is part of life and something we all have to deal with at some point. The recent unexpected death of a close cousin reminded me of how we never know when it will happen, we simply know it will happen.

As genealogists, we search through vast collections of records to find names, dates and places of ancestors and are amazed at the unexpected stories we may find in these ancestral pursuits.

DeathIndexes.com provides a list of searchable death indexes and records by state and is maintained by Joe Beine who maintains multiple sites to help all those who are researching their ancestors as well as having a blog site of his own called Genealogy Roots Blog. When you click on his profile you find out he is a genealogist from Denver, Colorado.

This site was started back in 2003 and I'm sure has become even more useful over time as more and more sites are added. The various links lead to online death indexes, death records, death notices, obituaries, wills, probate records and cemetery burials. Pick a location from the list:

For this blog, I'll click my home state of Rhode Island and view the results:

The results are well worth my time and energies in checking each link out. The RI Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project has been going on for years, it started when I was a Family History Director there back in the 1990s. It has come a long way from its origins and founder John Sterling and Deby Nunes who are dear colleagues. According to the site, there are over 458,000 inscriptions in this one database!

In addition there are listings by county, Catholic burials and newspaper obituaries. One can definitely make use of this great resource when doing their US research!

Comments Are Always Welcome!

Building Bridges for All Generations!