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I would occasionally use Find A Grave if it popped up on one of my searches but other than that didn't really use it much. I just started taking full advantage of it by adding my family names into it AND becoming a volunteer photographer. What fun! I love old cemeteries and so now I have a reason to wander them lol....I've taken my kids out on a couple of photo hunts and planning on doing one this morning...
I like it alot although not so much for geneology but instead i always like to look up the grave sites of the 1920's and 1930's hollywood actors and actresses as that era infactuates me
I imagine rubbing would only help if the text is covered with dirt. Some of them are so old, they are literally eroding so the letters and numbers aren't clear and rubbing might even make it worse. Unless you mean taking A rubbing (placing paper over it and rubbing it with crayons or something)?
I've found that a charcoal pencil works very well.
When the STL airport expanded, an old cemetery that did not have perpetual care was impacted and many graves were moved. I know the man who had the contract and I have been able to get several (like about 30) gravestones. He makes markers, so some are from this old cemetery when people elected to have new stones, somes are ones he made tha have mistakes or were damaged, et. I have a diverse group and several head stones that I would like to research or see if family wants them. Does anyone know where I can list them to find family?
I suggest the rootsweb/ancestry message boards for the Surname on the stone. They seem to have the widest circulation.
I would occasionally use Find A Grave if it popped up on one of my searches but other than that didn't really use it much. I just started taking full advantage of it by adding my family names into it AND becoming a volunteer photographer. What fun! I love old cemeteries and so now I have a reason to wander them lol....I've taken my kids out on a couple of photo hunts and planning on doing one this morning...
My only complaint on the site is that it "seems" to list "all" internments -- while it really doesn't -- just the ones which have been added.
I would occasionally use Find A Grave if it popped up on one of my searches but other than that didn't really use it much. I just started taking full advantage of it by adding my family names into it AND becoming a volunteer photographer. What fun! I love old cemeteries and so now I have a reason to wander them lol....I've taken my kids out on a couple of photo hunts and planning on doing one this morning...
When I started genealogy I hardly ever when near it, but then with one of my families I discovered so much information that I hadn't found elsewhere that now I haunt the site, so to speak.
Be very careful with rubbings -- some places feel it's not good for the older more delicate stones.....
Suggestion for anyone who wants to see old stones better: Take a video camera with a reverse color function to the cemetery -- ours has the reverse ( it turns the picture to a negative essentially) -- and we found we can turn that on and videotape the stone. The letters pop right out at you many times. It works best on gray and white stones. If the picture reverse works, we just tape the stones, then run the video at home and write down the info..
Suggestion for anyone who wants to see old stones better: Take a video camera with a reverse color function to the cemetery -- ours has the reverse ( it turns the picture to a negative essentially) -- and we found we can turn that on and videotape the stone. The letters pop right out at you many times. It works best on gray and white stones. If the picture reverse works, we just tape the stones, then run the video at home and write down the info..
BRILLIANT!!! Is it okay that I share this with others?
I love the Find A Grave Site! I didn't help me find any relative. But I just love the facts that I can go wander around the grave now and read and take pictures of the stones and not feel like such a FREAK, I always thought I was the only one in the WORLD that enjoyed just reading the stones. And I enjoy feeling like I might help connect someone with a loved one. Just by spending some time entering the names and photos. Maybe some day someone will be searching for a mom or dad or g-g-g-grandma and because I took the time to enter in that information they will connect!
I can't wait to get my own car so that I can volunteer more often!!
And a great big thank you to all of the other people out there that volunteer.
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