“Our goal is to preserve precious records found in cemeteries throughout the world. We use modern technology to capture images of headstones with their GPS locations so users worldwide can access those records anywhere. BillionGraves strives to do just that: preserve at least one billion graves. And we won’t stop there!
We CAN achieve this goal. If only 100,000 of our users were to upload 10,000 images (about 850 pictures a month for one year) we would easily reach that goal. With just a couple trips to your local cemetery each month, YOU can easily make these records available to those people searching for their relatives.
Join our worldwide effort and see just how rewarding (and even addicting!) BillionGraves is.” (billiongraves.com)
BillionGraves project is perfect for someone looking to do a little service project, involve their kids and/or help others in their family history research. At BillionGraves the founder stated “As I delve into my family history, I celebrate every ancestor I find, and every record or scrap of information I can locate. But over and over, I run into roadblocks. Anyone who really digs for their family roots knows what that feels like. All these records and snippets of history I’m trying to find are out there, somewhere. But all too often I don’t know where to find it, or I can’t find it because I can’t travel to wherever my ancestors were born, lived, or died. But I realized something: every record is near somebody, even if that somebody isn’t me. As far as headstones and graves go, someone out there lives next to the cemetery I need. And who knows, maybe the cemetery they need to search through is the one in my home town.”
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
STEP 1: DOWNLOAD THE APP ON YOUR SMARTPHONE OR TABLET
STEP 2: FIND A CEMETERY
STEP 3: START TAKING PHOTOS! make sure you get a clear shot of each headstone, be careful of your shadow and make sure all dates/information are visible and as readable as possible.
STEP 4: UPLOAD THOSE PHOTOS THROUGH THE APP.
WANT TO HELP IN OTHER WAYS? All the graves that are uploaded need transcription! There are many pictures available that need the info from the gravestones indexed into the database. Some of the graves will already be done, you just verify the info is correct. Other photos need all the information uploaded.
JUST TYPE. BillionGraves figures it all out as you go. I added a military service for a grave I transcribed. Under Transcription I typed SPF 4 US Army Vietnam Purple Heart…and it categorized everything where it needed to be.
After you have transcribed you click NEXT, and a window will pop up seeing if there is a match with a family record over at family search. If it is clearly not the same person you click reject. If everything matches you can click accept. If you are not comfortable with this step, just X out and move to next photo.
So as you can see there is a lot of work that can be done. This is a great way to hep in the indexing efforts, and a great way to kids involved as well. You could get a youth group together for a service project, use it as an Eagle Project, use it as a chance to visit some really fabulous cemeteries in your area. Or you could be a keyboard warrior and help transcribe all the information!
