Find a Grave is a free site where people post tombstone photos and their inscriptions — sometimes entire cemeteries or smaller graveyards.
Once you sign up to be a contributor, you can post information. Without signing up, you can research on the site and find many burials of interest.
You can search nationwide, or by state or county or by specific cemetery. You also can search for famous people and their burial sites.
Many contributors are not related to the people whose information they post, but you can use this great site to enhance the memorial of your own ancestor, or create new entries for relatives whose cemetery or individual graves have not been entered. I went to the site recently and wrote up a memorial to my father and brother to mark the 30 years since their passing, as well as tributes to my grandparents.
You can add a photo, an obituary, as well as other family information. Links can be created to other graves in other cemeteries. If someone’s burial is unknown, you can still create a “virtual cemetery” in their memory. By doing that, someone researching the same person might then get in touch with you.
Check out findagrave.com, learn its features and sign up to add more information on your ancestors and friends.
I Once Was app can be fun
I recently heard of the app I Once Was, which you can access from your iPhone or iPad, but not Androids as yet. It helps you place your photo into historical photos of people in different occupations, so you can sort of see what you would look like if, say, you were a ship captain or a stenographer. Check it out at the iTunes store or go to blog.findmypast.com/try-our-new-fun-free-app-1406075858.html.
Southern Appalachians group
The Southern Appalachians Genealogical Association was formed in 2013 and covers Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. They have an email news link; a journal; and publish a quarterly newsletter, the Appalachiana, edited by Dawn Watson. Their current project is a book on the Toccoa News from the 1880s. For more information about activities and membership, check sagenealogy.org. Be sure your library is aware of this new group, as they serve an important region in the South.
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