Find A Grave Reviews

(based on 60 reviews)

103 of 182 people found this review helpful

I use Find a Grave often as a source of information on individual people in my family tree. I still need to check that the details agree with my own research. The strength is that the individual memorial is based on a recorded burial or a gravestone in an actual cemetery, often someplace far away that I could never visit myself.

Find a Grave uses the power of the Commons - thousands and thousands of volunteers around the world, each with their particular skill or interest, to find and make a memorial based on a cemetery burial record or an actual gravestone. And my access to all this data if freely available for me to search for online.

I have found burials and records of my family members in far away places I would never know about otherwise. A memorial may provide details of my person's death or burial date, an age, perhaps a photo of the gravestone with a readable inscription with birth date and place, spouse name, children's names. How wonderful is that! Knowing the cemetery, I can now search for family names and find other family members buried there.

Often, I end up in contact with the person who made the memorial or took the photo of the gravestone, and learn even more about the person, the cemetery, or the area where my ancestor lived. I've met some really helpful volunteers this way. Another Plus.

Yes, there are some Cons - some of the busiest volunteers rack up vast numbers of memorials they 'manage' and don't take messages, and may be slow to accept suggested edits, or even refuse to allow edits.

But there are rules and an appeal to the Find a Grave Team will usually enforce the rules.

I highly recommend giving this site a try for finding your people, - and you might also be a volunteer - to walk a cemetery near you and take gravestone photos that aren't yet posted. You might find someone special to me whose burial is still unknown.

In summary, I would recommend Find A Grave to a friend.