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Find a Grave: how to use it well

Guide ยท 4 min readChecked Sources linked at the end

Find a Grave is free to search with no account. Treat each memorial as a lead. A headstone photo is evidence. The typed dates and family links are volunteer work and can be wrong.

Ancestry has owned Find a Grave since 2013. The site holds about 265 million memorials.

How to use it

  1. Search by name, then narrow by place and death year. Try the cemetery's county if the name is common.
  2. Look at the headstone photo first. Read the dates off the stone yourself. Compare them with the typed memorial.
  3. Treat family links as hints. Volunteers link parents, spouses and children. Check each link against a census, a death record or an obituary.
  4. Expect recent deaths to be partly hidden. For recent deaths, the site now holds back some details for a period after the death.
  5. Grade it in your tree. A stone photo you read yourself can back a date. A typed date with no photo is a GUESS until you find a record.

In their own words

In January 2022, following complaints, Find a Grave announced a new policy for memorials of recently deceased persons.

Wikipedia, Find a Grave, read

Questions

Is Find a Grave accurate?

The headstone photos are good evidence. The typed details and family links are added by volunteers, so check them.

Go to the records

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Social Security Death Index: search it freeFree on FamilySearch. Birth and death dates, last residence, and the route to the SS-5 application. Chronicling America: free old newspapersFree from the Library of Congress. Obituaries, notices and local news, searchable by name and place. Why family tree hints go wrongCopied trees turn one mistake into a pattern. How grading facts PROVEN, LIKELY or GUESS stops it.