Tuesday, June 26, 2012

How to Volunteer at Find A Grave

What is Find A Grave? www.findagrave.com is a free online database of cemeteries throughout the world. Over 80 million online memorials have been preserved on this site from volunteers.  These memorials may contain birth and death dates, pictures, biographies and more specific information. Just today, there were  11,625,957 visitors on this site. Take a look, your relatives could be here!
What volunteers do?
  • Add and manage online memorials of family, friends or anyone.
  • Photograph headstones at your local cemetery for people in other states.
  • Submit a photo request for someone else to photograph your ancestors headstones in another state. 
Why should I become a Find A Grave volunteer?  As a Find a Grave volunteer, you choose what you want to do, and how often. Becoming a volunteer does NOT mean you are obligated to do anything. It simply means, you can help out when you can. I became a volunteer at Find A Grave , for the opportunity to preserve my ancestors headstones, and manage their information myself. When I traveled to Indiana to do family research, I spent most of my days in Norristown, Cemetery where most of my ancestors are buried. I noticed that Norristown Cemetery had very few names entered on Find A Grave. So, before it was too late, I photographed and transcribed hundreds of headstones in that cemetery. Honestly, I kinda felt like Indiana Jones as I pieced together broken headstones like a jigsaw puzzle to reveal their identity. There were even headstones that had fallen over, and were buried by grass with the inscription unreadable, but with a little effort, they were saved. Knowing that I helped give an identity to those buried in this cemetery is beyond words. In just a few days work, the unknown became KNOWN and preserved!
Image above: Headstones of my great, great, great grandparents; George Washington Burnes & Sarah Walker Burnes (the 2 on the left), buried in Norristown Cemetery.

For me, and the thousands of Find A Grave volunteers, the rewards are greater than expected. It's a great act of service. It's about doing the right thing for those who lived a much harder life than we have. It's a small way to pay it back as we preserve and remember our forefathers.
Here's an example of what an online memorial looks like: Click image to enlarge

How do I become a volunteer?
  • Go to www.findagrave.com Below is  an image of what the landing page will look like: (It's not the most glamorous website, but the content of this website is amazing!)
  • On the right, under the " FIND GRAVES " section, the 6th bullet point down, click on the link that says " JOIN THE FIND A GRAVE COMMUNITY ". The new page will look like this:
  • Type in your information. Then, on the bottom, you will see a check box for becoming a photo volunteer. Check the box if you would like to become a photo volunteer for others, or keep it unchecked, if you no not want to do this. (I checked the box when I signed up, and I don't have to photograph unless I want to). Finally, Click on " SEND MY INFORMATION ".  
That's it!! You're now part of the Find A Grave Community! If you have any questions, please contact me at sarah@tmgenealogy.com.

Click here to view Sarah Burnes Heiner's Public Find A Grave Profile >>
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3 comments:

  1. Headstones June 27, 2012 at 3:34 AM

    Great post and pictures. This blog is a great combination of suitable and useful information and well-written sentences that will certainly attract your sense towards Gravestones and Headstones.

    Reply
  2. Sarah Patterson June 29, 2012 at 12:29 AM

    Thanks you!

    Reply
  3. Headstones for Graves June 2, 2017 at 1:34 AM

    Thanks for sharing these tips on how to Volunteer at Find A Grave. Added I learn the responsibilities of these volunteer.

    Reply

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