Memorial Day is right around the corner -- and families are already making their way to cemeteries all over the United States to visit the graves of their loved ones. As you plan your visit to the cemetery, don't forget that NAMES IN STONE can make finding graves a lot easier!
On the home page at www.namesinstone.com, simply enter the name of a person whose grave you'll be visiting. If the grave is located in a NAMES IN STONE cemetery, you'll find the name in the search results and be able to examine the burial record.
You can then view the map of that cemetery with your ancestor's grave highlighted in red. You can quickly see a map of the entire cemetery and see where your relative is buried -- making it easy to find the location when you visit. You'll also be able to gather other critical information, like the grave address, names of people buried in surrounding graves, and other valuable data.
Just take the map and data to the cemetery with you. You'll be armed with information that will make finding a grave at the cemetery a breeze -- you'll walk right to it!
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Now and then, we receive letters from NAMES IN STONE users telling us about their experiences using the website. One satisfied user is J.D. from Utah. Her recent letter details just how helpful NAMES IN STONE can be for a Memorial Day visit.
She writes:
Last summer, my sister and I started a project where we planned to visit all the graves of our direct ancestors that are located in Utah and Idaho. Most of them came West in the mid to late 1800's, and their graves are spread throughout south-eastern Idaho and many parts of Utah.
We had visited many of the small cemeteries previously, so finding those graves wasn't difficult. But after some research, we learned that we had some ancestors buried in a large cemetery in northern Utah that we had never visited before.
We didn't know anyone who had previously visited these graves, and we knew it might be difficult to find them. But we had no idea just how hard it would be -- and since it was a Saturday afternoon, no one was in the cemetery office to help us.
We spent over two hours wandering through that cemetery, with absolutely no luck. As the sun started sinking in the sky, we finally gave up, knowing it might be a long time before we had a chance to visit the cemetery again. It was very disappointing. How we wished this cemetery's records were on NAMES IN STONE!
A few weeks later, we were in southern Utah, and decided to take the opportunity to do more cemetery hopping. We had heard that one of our ancestors was buried in the St. George, Utah City Cemetery. We wanted to find out, but we didn't want to make the trip there for a fruitless search. So this time, we were much more prepared.
In our hotel, we got on the internet and went to www.namesinstone.com. We did a quick search using our ancestor's name, and sure enough, there he was! Within seconds, NAMES IN STONE showed us the St. George Cemetery map with his grave highlighted in bright red!
Using that map, we traveled to the cemetery, and after just a few short minutes, we found the grave, right where the map said it was! It was easy! What a great experience--a sharp contrast to our disappointing search a few weeks earlier.
Thank you, NAMES IN STONE, for helping us with our ancestor project! We think this website is terrific, and we hope to be able to contribute to it. In fact, our next project is to make the trip back to southern Idaho, where we plan to try our hands at mapping one of our ancestor's little cemeteries using your online mapping tools. We're looking forward to it!
Sincerely,
J.D.
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