Cemetery Records Online: Find Your Ancestors’ Tombstones

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Genealogists love cemeteries, and the records you find there can be game-changers for your research. In fact, a tombstone might be the only record that remains of your ancestor. But cemeteries can lie far from the comfort of your desktop computer or smartphone. Cemetery websites help you cover that distance, with searchable grave databases, pictures and online memorials that give you a virtual tour of your ancestor’s final resting place. Here are the five best cemetery websites.

1. American Battle Monuments Commission

Look here for information on more than 200,000 burials and memorials in overseas US military cemeteries (most for the World Wars). Also find names from the Walls of the Missing at the East Coast Memorial, West Coast Memorial and Honolulu Memorial.

2. BillionGraves

BillionGraves collects crowdsourced gravestone images, transcriptions and GPS data. A partnership with MyHeritage has made the site and mobile app (iOS, Android and Windows) available in 25 languages. Register to search the site for free; additional perks (including GPS searches for nearby relatives’ burials) come with a BillionGraves+ membership.

3. Find a Grave

This free Ancestry.com-owned site, which has an app for iOS and Android, compiles user-contributed gravestone inscriptions and other data. Be sure to verify any biographical information and “calculated relationships” provided in your relatives’ memorials.

4. Interment.net

This fast-growing, free website sources cemetery records from government offices, genealogical and historical organizations, and individuals. You’ll find “Special Collections” of burials and deaths related to flooded cemeteries, mine disasters and the Woodmen of the World fraternal organization. The site’s search form allows for name variants and misspellings.

5. Nationwide Gravesite Locator

The US Department of Veterans Affairs runs this database. Search for burials of veterans and their family members in VA national cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries, other military and Department of Interior cemeteries, and private cemeteries (with graves marked with government grave markers). Also be on the lookout for military headstone applications, which the families of deceased veterans filed to receive special military markers.