FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Iowa Cemetery Tables

Current Projects page Iowa Cemetery Tables

Purpose
To create a table with links to important cemetery websites for the respective county in Iowa.

Contact
Jane Colmenares

Task List
Task List

Instructions
1. Go to the Creating Cemetery Tables task list and sign up for a group of counties for a state.

2. Go to the State page you are working on to use the links to access your counties.

3. Once on the county page you are adding the cemetery table, go down to the Cemeteries heading. If there is a cemetery table already on the page, go back to the task page and put the name of the county under the heading: already has cemetery table.

4. If there is not a cemetery table on the page, edit the Cemeteries section of the county page.

5. Copy and paste the following and paste it UNDER any other links on the heading of Cemeteries. You will need to be in Wikitext when you paste this in.

{| width="90%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="6" border="1"  |-   | width="30%" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" align="center" | Tombstone Transcriptions Online   | width="30%" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" align="center" | Tombstone Transcriptions in Print   | width="30%" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" align="center" | List of Cemeteries in the county   |-   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [FINDAGRAVEURLNAME Findagrave.com]   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |    | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [FINDAGRAVEURLCEMETERY Findagrave.com]   |-   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [IAGENWEBURL IAGenWeb]   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [WORLDCATLINK WorldCat]   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [BILLIONGRAVESCEMETERY Billion Graves]   |-   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [USGENWEBARCHIVES IAGenWeb Archives]   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |   |-   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [USGENWEBTOMBSTONEURL Tombstone Project]   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |   |-   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [IOWACEMETERIES Iowa Cemeteries]   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |   |-   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [BILLIONGRAVESNAMES Billion Graves]   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |   |-   | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" colspan="3" | See Iowa Cemeteries for more information. |}

6. In this task, you will be replacing links within this table to go to the appropriate websites.

Step 1 - Findagrave – Searching names
1. Open a new tab and go the website: Findagrave

2. Change the Cemetery in: field to “The United States”

3. Next, change the next link to the State to Iowa.

4. Next, change the next link to the name of the county you are working on.



5. Click on the Search button.

6. The website will now make a search of the county and return with an error “You must enter at least two characters in the surname field.

7. Copy the URL in the browser address field.

8. Go back to line 7 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [FINDAGRAVEURLNAME Findagrave.com]

9. Replace the text, FINDAGRAVEURLNAME with the new URL.

Step 2 - Link to FS catalog
1. Open a new tab and go to the website: FamilySearch Catalog

2. Type in the county name and click on the Search button (type just the actual name of the county, do not add the word county after it). If there are multiple entries, be sure to select the one for Iowa. Select it and then click on Search.

3. Click on the topic Cemeteries



4. Looking at the URL, copy the last number listed after, Open= and before the dash.

5. For example, this is the URL for Adams County, Colorado cemeteries: https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&amp;placeId=205236&amp;query=%2Bplace%3A%22United%20States%2C%20Colorado%2C%20Adams%22&amp;subjectsOpen=551294-50

The correct subject number for this above URL is: 551294

6. Go to line 8 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |

7. Replace the text NUMBER with the new number from the URL.

Step 3 - Findagrave – List of Cemeteries
1. Open a new tab and go to the website: Findagrave

2. Change the Country field to “The United States”

3. Next, change the next link to the State to Iowa

4. Next, change the County List field to the correct county.

5. Click on the Search button.

6. The website will now list all of the Cemeteries in that county.



7. Copy the URL in the browser address field.

8. Go to line 9 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [FINDAGRAVEURLCEMETERY Findagrave.com]

9. Replace the text, FINDAGRAVEURLCEMETERY with the new URL.

Step 4 - Iowa GenWeb websites
1. Open a new tab and go to the website: Iowa GenWeb.

2. Find the county name you are working on and click on the link

3. On the page for the county, look for a link to the cemetery list. If you have trouble finding the cemetery link, you can search the page by clicking on Ctrl and “f” at the same time. Then do a search for the incomplete word “cemeter.” This will bring up both words of cemetery and cemeteries. (if the cemetery links are on the main page of the county, just use that URL). 3. Once you find the link, click on it and copy the URL.

In the case of Adams County, there are multiple cemetery listings on the main page, so you would use the URL for the main page.



4. Go to line 11 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [IAGENWEBURL COGenWeb]

5. Replace the text, IAGENWEBURL with the new URL.

Step 5 - WorldCat link
1. Open a new tab and go to the website: WorldCat.org

2. Change the field, "Keyword," to "Subject." Then, type in the cemetery, county name (without the word county) and state. For example, if you are working on Adams County, Colorado, you would type into the subject search field: cemetery Adams Colorado.



3. Press the search button and you will see a result list of all of the published cemetery books in the WorldCat catalog.

4. Copy the URL in the browser address field.

5. Go to line 12 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [WORLDCATLINK WorldCat]

6. Replace the text, WORLDCATLINK with the new URL.

Step 6 - Billion Graves Cemetery search
1. Open a new tab and go to the website: Billion Graves

2. Change the Filter Cemetery Results by Region by choosing the country, state and county you are working on and click on the Search button.

3. Copy the URL in the browser address field.



4. Go to line 13 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [BILLIONGRAVESCEMETERY Billion Graves]

5. Replace the text, BILLIONGRAVESCEMETERY with the new URL.

Step 7 - Iowa Genweb Archives
 1. Open a new tab and go to the website: IAGenWeb Archives

2. Click on the county you are working on.



3. If the cemetery records are on the main county page, use that URL. If not, find the link that goes to the Cemetery records and click on it.



4. Copy the URL in the browser address field.

5. Go to line 15 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [USGENWEBARCHIVES IAGenWeb Archives]

6. Replace the text, USGENWEBARCHIVES with the new URL.

Step 8 - USGenWeb Tombstone Project
1. Open a new tab and go to the website: IAGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project

2. Click on the county you are working on.



3. Copy the URL in the browser address field.

4. Go to line 19 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [USGENWEBTOMBSTONEURL Tombstone Project]

5. Replace the text, USGENWEBTOMBSTONEURL with the new URL.

Step 9 - Iowa Cemeteries
1. Open a new tab and go to the website: Iowa Gravestones

2. Click on the County field and a new URL will show up.

3. Copy the URL in the browser address field.



4. Go to line 23 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [IOWACEMETERIESURL Iowa Cemeteries]

5. Replace the text, IOWACEMETERIESURL with the new URL.

Step 10 - Billion Graves Name Search
1. Open a new tab and go to the website hosted on FamilySearch.org: Billion Graves

2. Click on the link, Death to add the county name and click on the Search button. This time you will want to enter the county name, the word county and the state. i.e. Adams County Colorado



3. Copy the URL in the browser address field.

4. Go to line 27 of the cemetery table on the county wiki page. The wikitext code on the line will look like:

| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | [BILLIONGRAVESNAMES Billion Graves]

5. Replace the text, BILLIONGRAVESNAMES with the new URL.

Step 11 - Save the page
1. Go to the bottom of the page to the edit summary field and type in, Added cemetery table.

2. Then save the page. Your finished table should look like this



3. Now go back and try each link to see if it goes to the correct websites for the county you are working on. Make any adjustments on the URLs so that they work correctly.

4. Now go to the next county you are to work on. If you have finished all of the counties you signed up for, go back to the task page and sign up for a new set of counties.