Find a Gravefindagrave.comResearching on Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a free website where volunteers photograph headstones and write down who is buried where. A memorial page often has a photo of the gravestone, birth and death dates, an obituary, and links to the person's parents, husband or wife, and children.
Getting started
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Search for a person
You don't need an account to search. Type a first and last name, and add a birth or death year if you know it. Leave the cemetery location empty at first.
- Leave out middle names. Many stones only show a first name.
- Try other spellings: Loes, Lös, Loess. Luxembourg names were often spelled differently in America.
- Use * for "any letters": Lo*s finds Loes and Loos.
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Make sure it's the right person
Compare the memorial with what we already know: dates, the town, and the family members linked at the bottom of the page.
The photo of the headstone is the best part. The typed details were entered by volunteers and can have mistakes, so trust the stone over the text. Older stones may be in German: geb. means born and gest. means died.
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Look around the cemetery
Click the cemetery name on a memorial to open the cemetery's page. From there you can search that cemetery for the same last name. Families were often buried side by side, so parents, children and in-laws may be just a few rows away.
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Make a free account (optional)
With a free account you can:
- Request a photo: a volunteer who lives near the cemetery may go and take one
- Suggest a correction to a memorial
- Leave virtual flowers, or add a grave that's missing
- Keep your own list of family graves (a "virtual cemetery")
Using Find a Grave with FamilySearch and the Family Portal
Four steps, round trip- 🌳Start here
Open a person on the Family Portal. If their story checklist says Burial place is missing, they're a good one to look for. The list below shows everyone who's missing one.
- Find the grave
Use the Search Find a Grave button next to their name. Check the headstone photo and the family links. Copy the memorial's web address from the top of your browser.
Check FamilySearchOpen the same person on FamilySearch (their ID is on their Family Portal page). FamilySearch has a free Find a Grave index, so the memorial often shows up as a record hint. Attach it under Sources so others can see it too.
- ✏️Bring it home
Back on their Family Portal page, tap ✏️ Fix it and fill in the burial date and place, like “St. Mary's Cemetery, Town, Dubuque County, Iowa”. Not sure it's them? Use 🚩 Flag it and paste the link so the family can help decide.
A clue, not proof
Anyone can create a memorial. Some were typed from obituaries or copied from other people's trees, and the family links on a memorial can be wrong.
Use Find a Grave as a strong hint. When you can, confirm it with a death certificate, an obituary, or the church burial register, then add those to FamilySearch too.
About the photos: the headstone pictures belong to the volunteers who took them.
Linking to a memorial is always fine. Before you upload someone else's photo to our Gallery, send them a quick note on Find a Grave to ask. Your own photos of family graves are very welcome in the Gallery!
Good to know
Obituaries are gold
Many memorials include a typed or photographed obituary. Obituaries name children, brothers and sisters, and where people lived, which helps grow the tree.
Close family can take over
Each memorial has a manager. If it's for your parent, grandparent or other close relative, you can ask the manager to transfer it to you so you can keep it up to date.
Share what you find
Found a family grave or a missing headstone photo? Send the link to Jordan, or add it to the person's page yourself with ✏️ Fix it.
