BILLION GRAVES APP IG.qxd 25/08/2011 2:11 PM Page 1
Diane L. Richard looks at a great new App for your Smartphone Research! A BillionGraves on Your Smartphone!
AS MORE AND MORE individuals oper for the website, says that associated with no longer active acquire iPhones, iPads, Android- “When volunteers map their local churches where interment records based phones, tablets, etc., more cemeteries and post the photos to are no longer extant, etc. So for a and more genealogy apps are BillionGraves, anyone will be able number of reasons, we can be being created to run on these plat- to access complete headstone greatly challenged in determining forms. One of interest to genealo- records and locate potential ances- who is buried where. The more gists is BillionGraves; an app that tors, whether they have the means tombstone records that become allows volunteers to quickly col- to travel or not.” readily and freely accessible online lect photos of all of the headstones You can search the posted increases the likelihood that we’ll or grave markers in a cemetery records for either a person (last all be able to determine where our and share them with family histo- name is required and then you can ancestors are buried. And, remem- rians and genealogy buffs via the optionally enter first name, birth ber, you can help by either down- web, by uploading them to the year and death year or as part of loading the new BillionGraves app BillionGraves.com database. The the advanced search feature, pro- or transcribing the uploaded images collected using smart- vide marriage year or keywords or images. phone technology include GPS phrases) or a particular cemetery data that maps the precise location (indicate what country and then IG of an ancestor’s final resting place. for example, for the US, you can Therefore, each image includes also identify which state and then Scan the QR code specific location data which shows county). Recognize that the inclu- at right to get more where each grave is located. sion of cemetery information does information on Once the photos are published not mean that any headstone BillionGraves.com online, fellow family historians images have yet been uploaded. or to download the and genealogists can help tran- The BillionGraves app is free App. scribe the information from the for download in the Android headstones, making it easy to Market and the Amazon Appstore search. That easy search puts for Android, as well as on unique, previously undocumented Apple’s iTunes App Store. headstone records mere mouse- Registration on clicks away from anyone looking BillionGraves.com, which for their ancestors. Because of the allows volunteers to upload GPS data, it’s ensured that photos, transcribe the photos, or searchers can see cemetery infor- do research is free. mation, view the actual head- Don’t have the gadgets stones, and know exactly where required to collect images for those headstones are. BillionGraves? You can still All of the following furthers help build the database by the the BillionGraves.com effort: transcribing the images so • Collect headstone photos in anyone, anywhere, can bulk, with the location of each find ancestors’ graves with marker accurately captured. just a few clicks of the • Upload location-rich images to mouse. the BillionGraves.com database To learn more about the for all to share. project, visit http:// • Add new cemeteries to the BillionGraves.com or the BillionGraves.com registry. project’s blog, http://Billion Remember that individuals Graves.blogspot.com. around the world have unique As genealogists, we know access to the graves in local ceme- the invaluable information teries and by using this app, this that can be found in cemeteries. information can be more readily We also appreciate that for shared with the world. many, a lot of cemeteries were Rob Moncur, the head devel- located on a family farm, were
52 INTERNET Genealogy • October/November 2011 www.internet-genealogy.com