1 Mark Dickson Arlington RUG December 2015

Find-a-Grave – History and Structure Created in 1995 by Jim Tipton Launched as a commercial site in 1998 Incorporated in – Ancestry.com acquires Find-a-Grave 2

Find-a-Grave – History and Structure (continued) Ancestry’s future plans for Find-a-Grave:  Launch a new mobile app  Improve customer support  Introduce an improved system for adding data  Foreign language support 3

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Search for an Individual Grave 5

Display an Individual Record 6

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Find-a-Grave Data and TMG Tags – Which Ones? The “Big 4” – B, D, M, B:  Births – good on dates, so-so on POB.  Deaths – good on dates, so-so on POD.  Marriages – good on names, so-so on dates & places.  Burials – poor on dates, excellent on places. Military Service – may provide units, dates served, decorations/awards, pension data. Obituaries – some (I usually copy obits to death or burial tag). Other – good on name, dates, places of parents, siblings, and spouses (use this data to build family records). 8

Find-a-Grave Data and TMG The Find-a-Grave Memorial Number Find-a-Grave Memorial Number – The Index Value for each Find-a- Grave record- Here’s where I put it for each tag. 9

Find-a-Grave Data and TMG Sources – how to write? 10

Find-a-Grave Data and TMG Places – Cemeteries, Crematoria, etc. 11

Similar/Related Sites & Blogs Billion Graves – [URL] Joy Neighbors is the media manger for Genealogists.com and writes the weekly cemetery culture blog, A Grave Interest Stone Chasers Online Searchable Death Indexes and Records - (also contains links for death records for the following cities: Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, and St. Louis). 12

Similar/Related Sites & Blogs – Categories/# Sites from Cyndi’s List: Death Records (1182) Cemeteries & Funeral Homes (3058) Obituaries (559) “Deceased Online” (“The central database for UK burials and cremations”) - (searching the index is free, but viewing, printing, and downloading are not) 13