Find a Grave

Find a Grave
URL FindaGrave.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Online database
Registration Optional
Available language(s) English
Owner Jim Tipton
Launched 1998 (1998)
Current status Active

Find a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA[1] and incorporated in 2000.[2][3]

Contents

History

According to the founder, Salt Lake City resident Jim Tipton,[4] the website was developed in 1998 to address the lack of any existing site that catered to his hobby of visiting the graves of celebrities. After some time, an online forum was created on the site.[5] As of December 29, 2011 the site states that it hosts over 73 million records.[6]

Content and features

The website contains listings of cemeteries and graves from all around the world. American cemeteries are organized by state and county, and many cemetery records contain Google Maps (with GPS coordinates supplied by contributors) and photographs of the cemeteries. Individual grave records contain some or all of the following data fields: dates and places of birth and death, biographical information, cemetery and plot information, photographs (grave marker, the individual, etc.), and contributor information.[7]

Interment listings are provided by individuals[8] or genealogical societies.[9] Major institutional contributors to Find A Grave include the US Veterans Department,[10] the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and American Battle Monuments Commission,[11] and the International Wargraves Photography Project.[12]

Contributors must register as members to submit listings, which are called memorials on the website. Upon submitting a listing, that member becomes the manager of the listing, but may transfer management. Only the current manager of a listing may edit the listing, although members and non-members may send correction requests regarding listings. Members and non-members can submit notations, which consist of images or pictures or flowers, flags, religious symbols, etc., which are posted on the individual listings. Managers of listings may post links to other listings of spouses and parents for genealogical purposes. Members may also request photos of graves which then other members can fulfill.[13]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Utah Secretary of State Entity No. 2442925-0151 Retrieved November 11, 2011
  2. ^ Utah Secretary of State Entity No. 4729413-0143 Retrieved November 11, 2011
  3. ^ Delaware Department of State: Division of Corporations Entity File No. 3168328 Retrieved November 11, 2011
  4. ^ "Find A Grave Contributor: Jim Tipton". Find A Grave. 2007. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=1. Retrieved December 29, 2011. 
  5. ^ Maynard, Meleah (February 16, 2000). "Grave Matters: Minnesota's dead are only a click away". City Pages (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota: citypages.com). http://www.citypages.com/2000-02-16/books/grave-matters/. Retrieved December 29, 2011. 
  6. ^ "Find a Grave". Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/. Retrieved December 29, 2011. 
  7. ^ Find a Grave: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) www.FindaGrave.com
  8. ^ Loudon, Bennett J. (August 30, 2011). "Civil War history carved in stone in Pittsford". Democrat and Chronicle (Gannett). http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110902/NEWS05/109020312. Retrieved September 28, 2011. 
  9. ^ Moody, Sharon Tate (January 24, 2010). "Find A Grave can shorten the search". The Tampa Tribune (TBO.com Tampa Bay Online). http://www2.tbo.com/lifestyles/life/2010/jan/24/tr-find-a-grave-can-shorten-the-search-ar-52374/. Retrieved December 28, 2011. "The entries with tombstone photographs obviously are reliable, but if the entry is based only on a paper record of the interment (without a photograph), it's easy to mistype the date, so you're bound to find errors." 
  10. ^ Find A Grave: Member Record number 5 (1.9 million records)
  11. ^ Find A Grave: Member Record number 6 (760,000 records)
  12. ^ Find A Grave: Member Record number 46770518 (1.3 million records)
  13. ^ "Find a Grave FAQs: "How do I submit a photo request?"". Findagrave.com. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=listFaqs#73. Retrieved 2012-01-02. 

References

External links