One of the most enjoyable parts of this hobby, for me, is helping others. You never know when a grave you photograph or a memorial you put online might help a grieving loved one visit a grave they might otherwise never have been able to see.
While out snapping photos in a small church’s cemetery this morning, I came across the graves of two young men, brothers, who shared more than a family connection.
With over twenty million records in their database and only four admins to maintain them and handle the barrage of fixes that are submitted on the forums, the Find A Grave administrators came up with an idea to make things easier on everyone - County Keepers.
In the small, unassuming town of Eunice, Louisiana in Acadia Parish, rests a brave, little girl that triumphed over the cancer that took her life by using her suffering to end that of others’.
A question on a Flickr group, Graves, Tombs and Cemeteries, I recently joined asked how everyone’s fascination with cemeteries began.
It was the death of my friend and brother-in-law, Lance Corey Morel, on October 12, 2006, that actually caused me to stumble onto Find A Grave for the first time.
One of the first draws I had to One Foot in the Grave: Secrets of a Cemetery Sexton
Tipton writes:
Finally, a book that glibly exposes the often funny, always poignant truth behind the life of an undertaker.
Displayed prominently in Baton Rouge’s historic Magnolia Cemetery is the grave marker and memorial to the young children of William H. and Mary E. Crenshaw.
In 1995, my grandmother and I made a trip out to Immaculate Conception Church Cemetery in Dupont, Louisiana to gather information from the headstones of family members.
A term that I never heard before coming to the Find A Grave forums was “zinker”. I saw it mentioned it a few times there and poked around until I found it explained. It was quite an interesting tidbit of information and I quickly became yet another of the many “zinker hunters”.
The most rewarding graving trips are those where I set out to find something in particular and end up finding more than I’d ever even hoped for.
