Big Updates to Find A Grave Records at Ancestry.com

by | Sep 15, 2017 | 01 What's New, Ancestry, Cemeteries, Records & databases | 6 comments

If you’re looking for cemetery records, you’re in luck! This week there have been massive updates to Find A Grave’s global databases at Ancestry.com. But why search Find A Grave at Ancestry.com? We can think of 3 good reasons.

Big Find A Grave at Ancestry.com

Find A Grave at Ancestry.com: Updated Collections

Did you know you can use Google Earth to find cemeteries? Click here to learn how.

The following Find A Grave collections have all been updated to Ancestry.com, where they can be linked directly to your tree:

You’ll also find these records updated at FamilySearch.com as well.

If there’s a specific grave you’re looking for, ask Find a Grave to help! Click here to learn how to submit a photo request to both Find a Grave and Billion Graves.

Why Use Find A Grave at Ancestry.com?

Sunny Genealogy Giants

Sunny Morton, Genealogy Giants Guru

Find A Grave is a free website with crowd-sourced tombstone images and transcriptions from cemeteries all over the world. Last we checked, they boast 162 million grave records! Their catalog of cemeteries tops 400,000, spread out over 200 different countries, and they have at least a partial listing of graves for well over half of these (over 250,000).

So why would you go to Ancestry.com to search records that are already free at Find A Grave? Genealogy Gems Contributing Editor Sunny Morton, our resident expert on the giant genealogy websites, says:

“If you’re already an Ancestry.com subscriber, searching Find A Grave from within Ancestry.com may be a good choice for these three reasons:

1. One-stop searching. You’re already searching in Ancestry.com: you don’t need to remember to switch over to search Find A Grave separately for each ancestor.

2. Ancestry.com’s search tool. Find A Grave has a nice but basic search tool. It’s pickier about the search results it returns: does the spelling match? And is a potential result in the exact place you requested? (If you search a specific county, Find A Grave will only return results from that county–not in an adjacent county, across the state line, or even across the country where an ancestor may have been interred.) Lacey has a great example below.

From Lacey: Here’s a search of my 3X great grandfather at Find A Grave:

find a grave search

Unfortunately, no results:

find a grave results

I then hopped over to Ancestry, went to the card catalog, and searched the U.S. Find A Grave Index:

ancestry find a grave search

Turns out there was an extra “t” on his surname (see results below). I didn’t search on a partial name because I’ve never come across a different spelling of his before, and I certainly didn’t expect to see one on his tombstone! But sure enough, the name is not spelled as it had been throughout his life. It’s awfully nice that Ancestry could find it:

ancestry find a grave results

Ancestry.com is much more forgiving and flexible about spelling and places. It will return search result possibilities that don’t have to match exactly. As you can see from the screenshots above, Ancestry offers more fields to enter, including relatives’ names (and people are often buried with relatives), a more detailed place field, and keywords.

3. Tree-building ease. If you build your tree on Ancestry.com, it’s easy to attach Find A Grave search results to your ancestor’s tree profiles. If you search separately at Find A Grave, you have to create a separate source citation to attach to your tree.” (Note: hopefully, if you’re building your tree on Ancestry.com, you’re syncing it to your own software. RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker will both sync to your Ancestry tree–click here to see why Lisa Louise Cooke prefers RootsMagic.)

More Cemetery Resources

Get detailed step-by-steps for using Find A Grave and Billion Graves, plus guides for understanding tombstone epitaphs and symbol meanings in this brand new book: The Family Tree Cemetery Field Guide. Discover tools for locating tombstones, tips for traipsing through cemeteries, an at-a-glance guide to frequently used gravestone icons, and practical strategies for on-the-ground research.Use coupon code GEMS17 for an extra 10% off! *Coupon valid through 12/31/17.

https://lisalouisecooke.com/2016/07/cemetery-records/

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

Family History Episode 14 – How to Contact Long Lost Relatives

by | Jan 14, 2014 | 01 What's New, Family History Podcast, Inspiration, Interviewing

Family History: Genealogy Made Easy PodcastOriginally published 2009

Republished January 14, 2014

https://lisalouisecooke.com/familyhistorypodcast/audio/fh14.mp3

Download the Show Notes for this Episode

Welcome to this step-by-step series for beginning genealogists—and more experienced ones who want to brush up or learn something new. I first ran this series in 2008-09. So many people have asked about it, I’m bringing it back in weekly segments.

Episode 14: How to Contact Long Lost Relatives

Connecting with someone who knows about our ancestors can really boost our research results—and even create new relationships among living kin. But it’s not always easy to send that first email or make that first call.

In today’s episode we talk about the skill of “genealogical cold calling.” We’ll chat with my cousin, Carolyn Ender, who has conducted hundreds of telephone interviews. She has a knack for quickly connecting with folks she doesn’t know over the telephone in ways that put them at ease and bring to light the information that she’s looking for.

But first, we do some follow up with an email from a listener about family trees. Then, I share a little story that puts into practice what we’ve learned so far in this podcast series.

Links

Anywho

Google

Whitepages

Whowhere

Before you search for genealogy DO THIS!

by | Aug 12, 2024 | 01 What's New, Beginner, Google, Records & databases, Research Skills, Tech Tip Tuesday, Technology | 2 comments

Video & Show Notes: When you pay for a genealogy website, you want to get the most for your money. Don’t randomly search hoping to find something about our family. Instead, follow these steps that will lead to finding more records about your ancestors, faster!

Length: 10 minutes
Year: 2024
Adjust video quality: click gear icon.  Fullscreen, CC and transcription search are also available. 

Show Notes

Google Search Operators:

  • Use quotation marks around a word or phrase to search for an exact match
  • Example: “John Smith”

Genealogy Website Search Operators:

  • Ancestry.com has its own unique wild cards and search operators
  • Example: Use ? as a wildcard to replace a single letter – Example: Smi?h to find Smith, Smyth, etc.

Website Search Help:

Each genealogy website has its own set of search operators. Save time and get better results by first learning what is supported by the particular website you will be searching.

  • Search with Google to find the website’s own search operator guide / help documentation. It’s faster than digging through the website’s menu and you’re likely to find more than one excellent resource. Use the following Google search queries:
    • [website] search help
    • [website] search operators
  • Save or print the search operator instructions as a personal “cheat sheet” for reference as you search. You can do this a number of ways:
    • Saving the page as a PDF
    • Printing the page using the “Custom Print” feature to target only the pages you need
    • Copy and paste the pertinent text into a document or note

Remember, search operators and techniques vary by website, so be sure to check each site’s help documentation.

Resources

Download the cheat sheet handout for this video. (Premium membership required)

Learn more about searching with Google:

 

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