Genealogy Cemetery & Burial Records

The "go take a picture of the headstone" layer of genealogy. Free crowd-sourced databases now cover most US/UK/CA/AU cemeteries and growing numbers across Europe. For the photos themselves see Photo DAM & Library Management; for restoration of weathered stone photos see Genealogy Photo Restoration AI; for migration mapping see Genealogy Maps & Migration.

The two giants

• ★ ★ Find a Grave — free; Ancestry-owned (since 2013) but no Ancestry subscription required. ~250M memorials worldwide; strongest in US. Volunteer-photographed; "request photo" feature taps a global volunteer network — usually answered within weeks. Profile pages link parents/spouses/children, accept additional photos, biographies, flowers (memorial tokens).
  • https://www.findagrave.com/
• ★ BillionGraves — free + paid GraveSupport (~$50/yr unlocks GPS export, advanced search, ad-free, family tree integration). ~50M+ memorials. Differentiator: GPS coordinates for every photo via the mobile app. Strong in Australia / UK / Eastern Europe / US growing. Companion mobile app rewards volunteers for photographing entire cemeteries.
  • https://billiongraves.com/

Regional / specialty

• Cemetery Junction — free directory of cemetery websites; useful for locating a cemetery's own records.
• Find a Grave UK / Deceased Online — paid UK burial records (Deceased Online has actual burial register images).
• Cemetery Records Online — free aggregator.
• Names In Stone — free; some funeral home databases.
• Interment.net — free; older transcription database, less polished.
• GraveMatter — small free/paid app for headstone transcription.
• The CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) — free; British/Commonwealth WWI/WWII war dead; meticulous records.
• ABMC (American Battle Monuments Commission) — free; US war dead overseas.
• JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) — free; Jewish cemetery transcriptions worldwide. See Genealogy By Country (Jewish/African/Asian).
• GraveSpy — free; Russian / Eastern European focus.
• Skogskyrkogården / GravarSE — free Swedish.
• Genealogiska föreningens gravstensdatabas — Swedish historical gravestones.
• DGS / DK gravstene — free Danish gravestones.
• CompGen Friedhöfe — free German cemetery transcription wiki.

Photographing graves (volunteer apps)

• ★ BillionGraves Mobile — free iOS/Android; GPS-tags each photo; auto-uploads in batches; community transcription. The default for "I'm at a cemetery, let me upload the whole place."
• Find a Grave Camera Tool — free iOS/Android; for fulfilling photo requests on existing memorials.
• Names in Stone app — free; smaller community.
• Photographer Volunteer networks — Find a Grave's "Request Photo" pings local volunteers; response time varies (days to never).

Specialty / weathered stone reading

• Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) — free open-source technique using multiple flash angles; reveals worn carvings. The CHI tools (Cultural Heritage Imaging) are FOSS.
• Photogrammetry — see Photogrammetry Software; a 3D scan of a headstone can reveal text invisible in 2D photos.
• Chalking / shaving cream — historically used for headstone rubbings; strongly discouraged by modern cemetery boards (damages stone). Use angle-flash photography instead.
• AI face restoration on headstone photos — overkill but works on weathered text via Genealogy Photo Restoration AI tooling.

Database notes / data quality

• Find a Grave is volunteer-edited — duplicates, bad relationships, and surname misspellings are common. Treat profiles as leads, verify with primary records.
• Profile ownership — Find a Grave assigns a profile to one volunteer; transferring requires polite request. Some volunteers hoard profiles and don't add information. Annoying but the price of free.
• GPS accuracy — BillionGraves geotagging is excellent; Find a Grave less so.
• Linked relationships — adding parent / spouse / child links creates a small family tree on Find a Grave. Use carefully; it can mislead other researchers if wrong.

Workflow with your tree

• Source citation — cite the Find a Grave / BillionGraves memorial URL and the actual headstone photo. The site is a derivative; the stone is the primary.
• Save photos to your tree — Gramps, RootsMagic, webtrees all let you attach the headstone image as a media object.
• DMS-tag — in Self-Hosted Document Management (Paperless-ngx), tag headstone photos vital-record:death, cemetery:{name}.

What's changing in 2024–2026

• Find a Grave under Ancestry's deeper integration — memorials surface in Ancestry hints; community concerns about commercialization persist.
• BillionGraves AI transcription — automated headstone-text reading reduces volunteer transcription burden.
• Drone / overhead cemetery photography — hobbyists mapping entire cemeteries with drone photogrammetry; some uploaded to Find a Grave / BillionGraves.
• Privacy — recent burials (children, post-2000) raise sensitivity; some memorials get pruned by family request.

Pick this if…

• Default first stop, US / global: Find a Grave.
• GPS-driven workflow / want exact coordinates: BillionGraves.
• Photographing an entire cemetery for the world: BillionGraves Mobile.
• War casualties: CWGC (Commonwealth) or ABMC (US).
• Jewish cemeteries: JewishGen JOWBR.
• Reading a worn stone in person: raking-light photography from multiple angles + post-process via Genealogy Photo Restoration AI.