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.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information for collections published in FamilySearch.org. Source citations include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.

Suggested citation format for a record in this collection.

Record Content
Key genealogical facts found in 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
Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors 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 compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

For help searching the collection view the on-line demonstration FamilySearch Search Tips.

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.

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 1 May 2013 and the collection, with that update, now contains 3,496,874 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 2013 have started showing up in the index. A headstone with a death date in February 2013 inscribed on it was sighted on the BillionGraves site itself on 27 March 2013.

Related Websites

 * BillionGraves

Related Wiki Articles

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

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. 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.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation Example for a Record Found in This Collection
“BillionGraves Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VT7X-Q8Y accessed 24 May 2012), Violet Hartsell Pinkerton, born 6 June 1908, died 8 September 2005; citing BillionGraves, Headstones, BillionGraves.com.