This week’s Family History through the Alphabet blogging challenge brings us to G. G for
Gravestones.
Family History researchers love cemeteries – and the search
for ancestor’s gravestones. Sometimes we
are not so lucky as we finally find the final resting place – to find – no gravestone
to honour the memory of a life. The
information on a gravestone can provide information for our research, including
full name, death date, birth place and other family members. Epitaphs and decorations on the gravestone
will also be of interest.
There are many resources now available to help us access cemeteries
and gravestone information. It was
interesting to do a search on “grave” in our catalogue to find over 200 results
from the search, many of them fiction. Of
course, I encourage a personal visit yourself if possible but failing this,
look for records on your cemetery or grave site of interest.
Locally.
Grave Concerns is the regular
newsletter of the Friends of Queenstown Cemetery
Gold, Graves and Glory 1840-1880 by Jackie French looks like an interesting book for young and old alike.
Ancestry have a number of useful collections including
Find a Grave has international content including Australia, but very USA biased. Check out the celebrity graves for a distraction.
Australian Cemeteries
Billion Graves aims to be the largest repository of headstone records,
images, and locations in the world, giving family historians access to
previously undocumented information that can further their genealogical
research. The site is built with these researchers in mind, and its structure
is inherently collaborative. The first step in the BillionGraves process is to
have iPhone and Android users download the BillionGraves camera app and take it with them
to local cemeteries, snap quick pictures of the cemetery’s headstones, and the
app uploads the photos to BillionGraves.com. The photos are tagged using the
iPhone’s location services so the exact location of each grave is recorded. Once the photos are on BillionGraves.com, anyone with a
account—can transcribe the records on the headstones and make them easily
searchable, see the headstones and the exact locations of ancestors’ final
resting places.
Gravestone Symbolism
Tips for photographing gravestones
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