Historical Context: Who is behind Find A Grave? Well, first of all, you are. Thousands of contributors submit new listings, updates, corrections, photographs and virtual flowers every hour. The site simply wouldn't exist without the 200,000+ contributors. When it comes to administrating, building and maintaining the site, Find A Grave is largely operated by its founder, Jim Tipton.

Jim created the Find A Grave website in 1995 because he could not find an existing site that catered to his hobby of visiting the graves of famous people. He found that there are many thousands of folks around the world who share his interests. What began as an odd hobby became a livelihood and a passion. Building and seeing Find A Grave grow beyond his wildest expectations has been immensely satisfying for Jim. Every day, contributors from around the world enter new records, thousands use the site as an educational reference tool, long-lost loved ones are located and millions of lives are fondly remembered. In what other line of work would Jim have met one of the last living Munchkins, spoken to a gathering of grave enthusiasts in a Hollywood mausoleum and acquired treasures like his antique coffin screwdriver (it only screws in)?

Questions Asked:
Given Name
Surname
Birth Date
Death Date
Photo (if applicable)
Cemetery

Why This Database is Valuable: When searching for departed relatives, often a researcher has no idea where to look for information past the SSDI. Further, for anyone who died before the 1960's, the SSDI does not help. A good way to make sure of Find A Grave is to search WorldVitalRecords.com for a particular relative and then to see whether or not that relative is on the list. With almost 16.5 million people in this database, there is a good chance of finding the relative you seek.

Next Steps: After finding the relative, email the person who submitted the information, or try asking the question to info@findagrave.com. When the cemetery is listed, look it up in the white pages if there is further interest in it and contact whomever may be in charge of the cemetery. If the cemetery is abandoned, then contacting the local historical society may help. they can probably be found by going to the USGenWeb, or WorldGenWeb. If the actual grave has a picture, then this will help with leads to more information for future research.

Bibliography
www.findagrave.com