BillionGraves Index - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
This collection is a name index of burial records posted on BillionGraves.com. BillionGraves has shared the index to the website BillionGraves.com, a large family history database of records and images from the world's cemeteries, all tagged with GPS locations. Volunteers around the world capture images of headstones in a cemetery and upload them to the site.

Record Content
This collection may include:


 * Name of deceased
 * Date of birth
 * Date of death
 * Name of cemetery
 * Date of burial

Information not in the index, but found from time to time on the headstones in the images on the BillionGraves website when you view the image associated with a record there:


 * Relationships (Father, mother, husband, wife, etc.)
 * Marriage place (not commonly seen).
 * Other family members such as parents or spouse of deceased
 * Epitaphs
 * Military service, unit, and rank information for service in wars fought by the United States or British Commonwealth nations. Some British Commonwealth headstones that have military information may have unit insignia as well as ID numbers of soldiers interred, but that information may vary from locality to locality.
 * Religious symbols that may be indicative of what religion the deceased may have practiced. This may aid in later research as many churches, synagogues, etc., may have or had kept records associated with the deceased that have other and more complete information.
 * Other information of various kinds.

How to Use the Record
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * Your ancestor's given name and surname
 * Identifying information such as residence, age, and family relationships

Search the Collection
To search the collection fill in the requested information in the boxes on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at the information on several individuals comparing the information about them to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:
 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article [FamilySearch Tips and Tricks].

Using the Information
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Download a copy of the record, or extract the genealogical information needed. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details. Add this new information to your records of each family. The information may also lead you to other records about your ancestors.

Viewing the Original Headstone Photos on BillionGraves
If you find a record while using this collection, you may view an image of the headstone associated with it at the BillionGraves website (link below). There is no fee to view the image associated with the record. You may also view a cemetery's Google map, and see where the headstone you are viewing is on that map, for free as well.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * Continue to search the index to identify other relatives.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Unable to Find Your Ancestor?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.

Frequency of Collection Updates
Since BillionGraves users are gathering and uploading new headstone images and those images are being transcribed daily, there will be regular updates to this collection. Updates currently happen frequently, usually every couple of weeks, but never less frequently than around every four to six weeks. The latest update occurred 4 August 2014 and the collection, with that update, now contains 8,553,803 records.

The collection time period box on the upper right of the page says '1001-2012'. However, a few headstones for those who have died in 2014 have started showing up in the index. A headstone with a death date in early 2014 inscribed on it was sighted on the BillionGraves site itself on 27 May 2014.

Related Websites
BillionGraves

Related Wiki Articles

 * BillionGraves
 * BillionGraves section of Cemeteries
 * United States Cemeteries
 * Singapore Cemeteries

Citations for This Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information (often called citing your sources). This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection citation:

Record citation (or citation for the index entry):

Suggested citation format for a record in this collection.