Find A Grave
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| URL | www.findagrave.com |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Online database |
| Registration | Optional |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | Jim Tipton |
| Created by | Jim Tipton |
| Launched | 1995 |
| Current status | Active |
Find A Grave is a website allowing its users to access, maintain and expand an online database of burial records.
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[edit] History
According to the founder, Jim Tipton,[1] the website was developed in 1995 to address the lack of any existing site that catered to Tipton's hobby of visiting the graves of famous people.
Initially the site listed only celebrities, but by 2000 Tipton opened the site to non-famous memorials.
After some time, an online forum was created on the site.[2]
As of July 2008, the site claims to host 25 million records.
[edit] Content and features
The site's FAQ states that the site strives for a comprehensive listing of the burial places of everyone in the world.[3]
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 the U.S. Geological Survey) 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.
Members are allowed to place on-line memorials for relatives and friends for no cost. Users receive editing privileges over the memorials. Members may also request photos of graves which Find A Grave volunteers can fulfill.
[edit] Find A Grave community
The members of Find A Grave have formed a community over the years of the site's existence. The Find A Grave Forums is a message board for contributors to the main website and persons who are interested in genealogy or cemeteries. Some members engage in a hobby known as "Tombstone Tourism" (the practice of visiting cemeteries purely for personal enjoyment)[4], which the people of the site often refer to as "graving".
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Find A Grave Contributor: Jim Tipton". Find A Grave (2007). Retrieved on February 24, 2007.
- ^ "City Pages - Grave Matters". Retrieved on 2008-03-27.
- ^ "Find A Grave FAQ". Find A Grave (2007). Retrieved on February 24, 2007.
- ^ The Complete Guide to Tombstone Tourism, The Independent (UK), 9 Feb 2002
