FTU - Cemetery Research 101 - Lesson 2 - Preparation for a Visit

One of the fun things about being a Find-A-Grave volunteer is going out, in all kinds of weather to take pictures. When someone finds a Memorial on Find-A-Grave and there isn't a picture of a headstone, there is a way to Request a Photo.

The button on the right is selected, some questions are asked, and an Email is sent to volunteers within a 10 mile radius of the ZipCode of the Cemetery. That email will have information that comes from this memorial and the volunteer can go take the picture.


Before I go out, I do some homework, especially in this cemetery. It's quite large and I might not have time to walk around. So, I find it helpful to do a couple of things.

One of the first searches that I do, on Find-A-Grave, is to search for other memorials eith the SAME Surname. From the Cemetery Name, I enter the Surname.

Its the bottom Search box on the Left. This will bring up a report:

There are 5 people with this Surname in this cemetery. There are ICONs that indicate if there is a Photo of a headstone. The one I was looking for is the bottom item, but just above there is a "RIP" image. I will look at that image to see if there are any hints as to where the head stone is located.

If this was an image on that memorial, I look at what is in the Background. Some distance from the Trees, with a small tree next to the stone. There is signs of a paved road between the row of stones and the 2 trees in the upper right. There is a larger stone with a bush to the Left. Those will be helpful in visually finding where this known stone is, and might help locate the stone what I want to take a picture of. Hint's of where to locate a stone are helpful.

Another hint, when looking for a female, is to not just look at the married surname but also the birth surname.  In Find-A-Grave, the birth surname is in italic.

The Find-A-Grave memorial for the above picture is:

A close look at the details of the stone and the background were both posted.

Another feature of Find-A-Grave, if the owner of the Memorial has done so, relationships are established, where you can click on the Spouse, our other relationships that might be there, will take you to that Memorial page.

Lesson Learned: Do some research before you visit the cemetery.




Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington

FTU - Cemetery Research 101 - Lesson 2 - Search the Cemetery

I recently posted this: Family Tree University Cemetery Research 101 - Lesson 2 - FInd a Cemetery.

That is how I find a cemetery and what I do in preparation for a visit to a cemetery. That is the physical location. Now, how about who has been recorded as being buried there. For Find-A-Grave, the "memorials" are created by volunteers. I am one of them, but that's a topic for another day. What I need to do now is get a handle on who might be there. It already appears that my person is buried there. In fact, there are three Hiram Deats listed, one with Jr, one with a middle initial of "E". But who else is there. We know that there are 37 people with this surname in 3 cemeteries in this county. Since my person is there, who else.

Back to the Cemetery page, we'll do a search.

The search box is on the Left, and is the 2nd box outlined in red. I generally start broadly then if I get too many results, will refine the search later. In this case, will just enter the Surname.

There are 21 people with this Surname in this Cemetery. including the 3 that had been listed before. There must be a story here, where most 21 of the 37 are buried here. Looks like it will be a successful trip.

Since my trip is to take pictures, of the one person I was looking for, here is the first Trick:

Trick One: Take a picture of the Cemetery Name or Sign, BEFORE taking any other pictures.

This tells me, that "the following pictures were taken at 'this' cemetery".

That should help. But, there was also another one. (2nd Picture)

The driveway was a little to the right of where this sign is, so I just walked forward toward the tree on the Left. There was a promising monument, and it was. It was a headstone for that Surname.

Looked around and found one of the three.

Can't be this easy. A large monument, and one of the three I had found before I left, but there were one a few headstones here, out of the 21 I expected to find. Not sure this is "my guy".

Next step: Look Around. Look at both sides of stones.

Continued to take pictures of my findings.

On the other side of that tree, mentioned earlier, was another monument.

This was THE monument I was looking for. Surrounding this monument were footstones. There is three generations of genealogical information, dates, relationships, on this one monument.

The first monument was found just to the left of the tree, where the first arrow is, and the large monument is where the left arrow is.

There must be a story here somewhere. Why the two plots, not that far apart in the same Cemetery.

Based on this one trip, taking pictures of the 'data', written in stone, recording that information and doing some Census Record searching, the family or families presented on that monument can be put together.

Lesson Learned: Do some research on the Cemetery you plan to visit before making the journey.


Lesson Learned: Keep looking around.





Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington

Family Tree University Cemetery Research 101 - Lesson 2 - FInd a Cemetery

As if there isn't enough to do, I decided that I would take an online class offered at the Family Tree University on Cemetery Research: taught by Midge Frazel of Granite in my Blood fame.

I have been interested in digging a little deeper into the subject, after all I have given a couple of presentations on the us the Find-A-Grave website. Our second week assignment was on what we might do in preparation for a cemetery visit. Here is part of the presentation I have given in preparation for a Cemetery Visit.

First you have to find the cemetery.

This is from a real life experience. I was given a Name and the County where this person lived. Here is what I knew:

I went to the Find-A-Grave website and this is the first screen and where the search was made from.

The next screen I will enter USA, tab to the State, hit "n" until New Jersey appear, then selected Hunterdon County.

The results were 169 Cemeteries in Hunterdon County. Had to refine the search, so I added ONLY the Surname.

The results were 37 people with this surname, buried in 3 Cemeteries. The Cemeteries are listed on the Left.

In that list were three names that were who I was looking for.

All three were in the SAME cemetery. In this case, and other cases, DON'T jump to conclusions. These three names may or may not be related.

Clicking on the Cemetery Name, on the Right will take you to the Find-A-Grave page for that Cemetery.

On the left is the address, if there is one, for the cemetery. I have found a wide variety of detail in that space for any cemetery.

On the right is some helpful information, like the number of interments there. That is ONLY the number that has been added to Find-A-Grave be a volunteer. There is a search box to search for a specific name. Note: Just because a name isn't returned, doesn't mean that they aren't buried there.

Below the pictures on the Right, is a map.

Note the GPS information just above the Map.


Since I haven't been here before, I wanted to take a look at what the area looks like. I know my GPS will get me there, but what should I look for before I come up to the cemetery. Using the Satellite View is helpful.

Farm land on the Left and trees with some houses on the Right. But the cemetery looks like it will be easy to spot and it's right on the road. I should be driving from the top of the map to the bottom, so I will look for farmland to my right, and the trees and houses on the Left. BUT, what is the name of that road. Clicking on the Hybrid View will help me.

This is what I know, so far, about this Cemetery.

Another post will follow on determining IF this is a cemetery I want to visit. But now I know where this one is.


Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington