The World Wide Web is an amazing genealogical resource. The amount of data that has been digitized in
the past five years alone is astounding.
True, what can be found online only scratches the surface of the available
historical and genealogical source materials all over the world, but the
Internet has become an excellent place to start an ancestral search. Personal and professional blogs, subscription
databases, free records through digital libraries, and other online resources
are becoming plentiful. An online
surname search that yielded no results in one week might be instrumental in
breaking down a seemingly insurmountable brick wall with the same online search
month later.
One recent newcomer to online research is BillionGraves.com,
which utilizes the smartphone as a genealogical tool. The site's goal is "[T]o provide an
expansive family history database for records and images from the world’s
cemeteries, all tagged with GPS locations." After downloading the free application onto
either an Android (Google) or iPhone (Apple) phone, a user would then take
their device to a cemetery and begin recording the headstones using the app and
the phone's built in camera. The photos
can then be uploaded to the BillionGraves site, where they will be tagged with
the GPS location. Don't have a
smartphone? The site is also looking for
volunteers to transcribe photos that others have uploaded. This searchable index of names will
eventually be made available on both BillionGraves and Familysearch.org.
My first thought upon learning about the BillionGraves
project was, "But what about FindaGrave.com?" It, too, is a website devoted to indexing
cemeteries and gravesites, with a free searchable database on FindaGrave.com as
well as Ancestry.com. FindaGrave's
mission "[I]s to find, record and present final disposition information
from around the world as a virtual cemetery experience" and has been
online since at least as early as 2000.
Like BillionGraves, it is dependent upon volunteers to expand their
database.
So which site is better?
There are pros and cons to both.
BillionGraves.com:
1) A smartphone is required to create a "record"
on the site. Users are not able to
create records or upload photos onto the site via computer, which begs the
question -- How do you document an unmarked grave?
2) Headstones are tagged with the GPS coordinates when
uploaded to the site, making it simple for future visitors to locate the
grave.
3) Currently, neither the smartphone application nor the
website can warn a volunteer that they have just taken a duplicate photo of a headstone
already recorded by another user. The
site recommends checking their website before taking a photograph to prevent
duplication, which can be a tedious proposition when in a large cemetery.
4) Unmarked graves cannot be indexed. No headstone, no record.
5) Any site member
can edit a BillionGraves record.
FindaGrave.com:
1) Records can be created via computer, without the
necessity of a photograph. Because of
this, unmarked graves can be documented via obituaries, burial records, etc.
Photos can be uploaded from a computer and are not limited to the
headstone.
2) FindaGrave does
not have a smartphone application.
Records need to be added/updated via a computer and an internet
connection.
3) When creating a new memorial, a search of the database is
necessary to detect if there is a duplicate record. There is no easy, "automatic" way
to do so.
4) Individual records can only be changed by the member who
created it; however, there is an easy way to notify the author of any
changes/corrections.
I have been a FindaGrave volunteer for approximately four
years but I have also downloaded the BillionGraves application to give it a
spin. No matter which site you prefer,
they are both fee-free (for the moment) and excellent editions to the online genealogical
toolkit.
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