Find a Grave

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Find A Grave
Find A Grave logo.png
Buryicon.jpg
Type of site
 Online database
Available in English
Owner Ancestry.com
Editor Jim Tipton
Website www.findagrave.com
Alexa rank Increase 9,308 (October 2017)[1]
Commercial Yes
Registration Optional
Launched 1998; 19 years ago (1998)
Current status Active

Find A Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com, the world's largest for-profit genealogy company. It receives and uploads digital photographs of headstones from burial sites, taken by unpaid volunteers at cemeteries. Find A Grave then posts the photo on its website. Although it does not ask permission from immediate family members before uploading the photos, it will remove and take down photos or a URL for a deceased loved one at the request of an immediate family member.[2]

History[edit]

The site was created in 1995 by Salt Lake City resident Jim Tipton to support his hobby of visiting the burial sites of celebrities.[3] He later added an online forum.[4] Find A Grave was launched as a commercial entity in 1998, first as a trade name[5] and then incorporated in 2000.[6][7]

The site later expanded to include graves of non-celebrities, in order to allow online visitors to pay respect to their deceased relatives or friends.[8][9]

In 2013, Tipton sold Find A Grave to Ancestry.com, saying that the genealogy company had "been linking and driving traffic to the site for several years. Burial information is a wonderful source for people researching their family history." In a September 30, 2013, press release, Ancestry.com officials said they would "launch a new mobile app, improve customer support, [and] introduce an enhanced edit system for submitting updates to memorials, foreign-language support, and other site improvements."[10]

As of October 2017, Find A Grave contained over 165 million burial records and 75 million photos.[10][11]

In March 2017, a beta website for a redesigned Find A Grave was launched, gravestage.com.[12][13] Public feedback has been mixed.[14] Sometime between May 29 and July 10 of that year, the beta website was migrated to new.findagrave.com,[15][16] and a new front end for it was deployed at beta.findagrave.com.

In November 2017, the new site became live and the old site was moved to old.findagrave.com

Content and features[edit]

The website contains listings of cemeteries and graves from 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 and gravesites. Individual grave records may contain dates and places of birth and death, biographical information, cemetery and plot information, photographs (of the grave marker, the individual, etc.), and contributor information.[17]

Interment listings are added by individuals,[18] genealogical societies,[19] and other institutions such as the International Wargraves Photography Project.[20]

Find A Grave's headquarters in Lehi, Utah

Contributors must register as members to submit listings, called memorials, on the site. The submitter becomes the manager of the listing but may transfer management. Only the current manager of a listing may edit it, although any member may use the site's features to send correction requests to the listing's manager. Managers may add links to other listings of deceased spouses, parents, and siblings for genealogical purposes.

Any member may also add photographs and notations to individual listings; notations may include images of flowers, flags, religious or other symbols, and often include a message of sympathy or condolence. Members may post requests for photos of a specific grave; these requests will be automatically sent to other members who have registered their location as being near that grave.[21]

Find A Grave also maintains lists of memorials of famous persons by their "claim to fame", such as Medal of Honor recipients,[22] religious figures,[23] and educators.[24] Find A Grave exercises editorial control over these listings.[25]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Findagrave.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2016-11-06. 
  2. ^ [1][dead link]
  3. ^ "Find A Grave member: Jim Tipton". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2012. 
  4. ^ Maynard, Meleah (February 16, 2000). "Grave Matters: Minnesota's dead are only a click away". City Pages. Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota: Star Tribune Media Company LLC. Archived from the original on September 28, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2012. 
  5. ^ "Entity No. 2442925-0151". Utah Secretary of State. 1998. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2011. 
  6. ^ "Entity No. 4729413-0143". Utah Secretary of State. 2000. Archived from the original on April 6, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2011. 
  7. ^ "Division of Corporations Entity File No. 3168328". Delaware Department of State. 2000. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved November 11, 2011. 
  8. ^ Silverman, Lauren (March 14, 2010). "Tracking Down Relatives, Visiting Graves Virtually". Washington, D.C.: National Public Radio. Retrieved September 28, 2011. "At some point, I said, 'I am sick of drawing the lines of who is famous and who isn't. I'm just going to accept everyone,' " Tipton says. 
  9. ^ "Find A Grave FAQ: What can I include in a non-famous bio?". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. Retrieved August 10, 2017. 
  10. ^ a b "Ancestry.com Acquires Find A Grave". Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com. Retrieved 1 October 2013. 
  11. ^ "Find A Grave". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2016-09-12. 
  12. ^ "The New and Improved Find A Grave Shown at #RootsTech". The Ancestry Insider. March 23, 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017. 
  13. ^ "Find A Grave". gravestage.com. Ancestry.com. Archived from the original on May 29, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017. 
  14. ^ "Monday Mailbox: Find A Grave". The Ancestry Insider. April 3, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017. 
  15. ^ "Find A Grave – the same and yet different!". UpFront with NGS. National Genealogical Society. July 10, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017. 
  16. ^ "bgwiehle" (July 20, 2017). "Dear Randy: How Do I Post a Find A Grave Hint on Ancestry.com?". Genea-Musings. Randall J. Seaver. Retrieved August 10, 2017. BETA is live and running in parallel with the old site. Now is the time for visitors and memorial owners to help test and improve the site. 
  17. ^ "Find A Grave FAQ". Find A Grave. Ancestry.com. 
  18. ^ Loudon, Bennett J. (August 30, 2011). "Civil War history carved in stone in Pittsford". Democrat and Chronicle. Gannett Company. Retrieved September 28, 2011. 
  19. ^ Moody, Sharon Tate (January 24, 2010). "Find A Grave can shorten the search". The Tampa Tribune. Tampa Media Group. 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. 
  20. ^ "Find A Grave member: International Wargraves Photography Project". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. Retrieved August 10, 2017. 
  21. ^ "Find A Grave FAQ: How do I submit a photo request?". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-01-02. 
  22. ^ "Claim to Fame: Medal of Honor Recipients". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-05-31. 
  23. ^ "Claim to Fame: Religious figures". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-05-31. 
  24. ^ "Claim to Fame: Educators". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-05-31. 
  25. ^ "Famous Bio Guidelines". Find a Grave. Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-05-31. 

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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