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Congratulations to Krista Al Qirim, our featured volunteer of the month for November, 2019! 
Krista has loved visiting cemeteries since she was a child. Her extended family lived just behind this one. When asked about her experience in cemeteries she mused, “There is something wonderful about reading the stones and witnessing the last, loving tribute to someone who is gone.” The memorials she creates are from various sources. She has used film, digital photography and also notebooks to record inscriptions. Mowing the rows at the cemetery and then uploading the photos from her computer is her favorite source method. She’s glad that there are multiple ways to contribute to Find A Grave. In Krista’s words, “It’s about caring enough to memorialize someone and preserve them in history… It’s beautiful, really.” 
Krista and her spouse, Tommy, do great work at the cemeteries. They use a flash set to light up the headstone at the exact moment the image is captured. Check out these before and after images of the headstones! 
To achieve these amazing results, Krista and Tommy mount their flash on a telescoping monopod and hold it about a foot away from the side of the stone. This allows the light from the flash to strike flat across the surface at the same moment they snap a photo. Some other methods of casting light on a headstone are using a mirror, foil, bright LED flashlight or choosing the right time of day according to the angle of the sun. 
Krista and Tommy, our accolades to you for your extraordinary work in cemeteries. We are so glad that you are Find A Grave members and appreciate all your efforts in recording and memorializing those that have passed.
We welcome your suggestions for Volunteer of the Month. If you’d like to submit volunteers for consideration for future months, please send an email with details of their work to feedback@findagrave.com.

We’re excited to announce a new search for Find A Grave memorials! Click here to try it out. Right now the new search looks similar to the regular search, but uses a different search engine. We’ll make updates to its appearance in the future. We’d love for you to try the same search on new search and regular search so you can see how they compare.
Here are some added options for the new search:
Last name is no longer required. We’ve added the option to include a spouse, sibling or parent in your search.  The date range options include +/-1 , +/-3 , +/-5 birth and death years as well as exact, before and after. Search by Contributor ID to find memorials within yours and others management. There is an option to make your name search fuzzy that will help find names which might have a letter missing or a slight misspelling. Added partial or prefix search similar to the old search for the first and middle name fields (Ben will find Benjamin and L will find Larry). The spouse, parent, child or sibling names can also be partial spellings. In the name fields, you can use the ? or * wild cards. ? replaces one letter. * represents 0 to many letters. E.g. Sorens?n or Wil* There are also some differences that you won’t notice in the fields, but may notice in your results:
Today, when a search returns more than 10,000 matches we just show an error message. The new search will show you the first 10,000 matches and the sort options will work on the full result list. If you’ve added a spouse, sibling or parent, their name and relationship will be included in the result. We’ve made the search header stay at the top of the screen as you scroll. You can use it to refine your search, sort your results or change the page number to jump to later pages (up to page 500). We’ve received great feedback and suggestions and look forward to more sent our way through our Beta Search Discussion page, pointed out below, or feedback@findagrave.com.

Version 1.5.6  of the iOS Find A Grave app has been released. 
 
Crash and bug fixes.

Version 2.4.1 of the Android app has been released. 
 
Fixed toggling between the cemetery map and cemetery list. Also fixed an issue with searching for cemeteries by name.

Unmapped Cemeteries broken out by County. 5-color level.
This means that the cemetery listed does not have GPS assigned to it. This has nothing to do with % of cemetery photographed or mapped memorials.
How does your county look?
 

Find A Grave Community Days are here again, October 4-6, 2019!
Are you a graver, a taphophile, a cemetery enthusiast, or do you know others who might be? This is the time to share your interests and plan or join a Cemetery Meetup to photograph gravestones and preserve history. The work you do in cemeteries is appreciated by people all over the world. Cemeteries draw us in. The headstones record lives lived, vital information, and even discovery of more about the person from the stone’s inscription and icons. Finding, photographing, and creating a memorial on Find A Grave preserves history for generations, while memorializing and honoring those that have gone before us.
We’ve all run across a stone partially covered in moss, soil, sunken or containing a faded inscription and wished it had been photographed sooner, like this interesting and beautiful one here. Find A Grave Community Days is the perfect chance to record history before it’s too late! 
To plan or join a local cemetery meetup for Find A Grave Community Days follow the instructions here. If you aren’t already a member of the Find A Grave Forums you’ll need to register an account at www.findagraveforums.com. This is a separate registration from the main site. Check the map and see what cemetery meetups have been planned near you – then register and join up. If you don’t see a scheduled event near you, then gather your family, friends, civic or church group and plan a meetup!
For helpful tips, check out some other blog posts such as our Cemetery Guide, tips on photographing headstones, pinning GPS locations while at the cemetery, and becoming a Photo Volunteer.
Thank you for joining Find A Grave Community Days 2019!

Whether you have a spare 15 minutes or an entire afternoon, you can make someone’s day by fulfilling a headstone photo request. 
Why Photograph Headstones? 
Headstones often contain a treasure trove of information. In addition to names, headstones might include birthdate and place, death date, the names of family members, unique inscriptions, symbols or icons, and other clues to religion, military service, fraternal organizations, and more. A simple headstone photograph can unlock the door to additional genealogical research! For example, the admirable castle on the headstone here is the logo for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

We are looking for people who would like to join our beta test group and help us as we make improvements to the site. 
 
As part of the beta test group, you might be invited to try out new features we are working on, answer survey questions about possible changes to the site, participate in usability tests and more. 
 
If you are interested, send an email to feedback@findagrave.com with “Beta Testing” in the subject line and we’ll add you to the group.

Why are GPS coordinates important for graves? 
 
It’s a great question. Have you ever visited a cemetery, wandered around for an hour looking for the grave, then finally left the flowers with someone else? I have! When GPS coordinates are added to a memorial it allows anyone to easily find and walk to the headstone or grave. In addition, that grave is also verified and recorded by a volunteer. This is important as the verified location of a grave can be a vital piece of the puzzle for your research. It’s probable that other family members are buried in neighboring plots or nearby. It’s also possible that a person’s burial location is near the location where they were living. This information can help in closing connections for those you’re researching. With GPS added, there’s no need to wander the cemetery or hope for your childhood memory to find the grave. Anyone will be able to visit the grave by walking directly to it.
 

 
What is GPS?
 
Any location in the world can be found through GPS coordinates. The Global Positioning System consists of over 30 navigation satellites orbiting the earth. This system makes it possible for people to receive their location from these satellites through hand held receivers. These receivers can be a smartphone or standalone GPS receivers. For the purposes of Find A Grave we use the decimal degrees format in latitude and longitude (+-dd.dddd, +-dd.dddd). If you use a smartphone then you can photograph headstones and upload GPS coordinates at the same time while using the free Find A Grave app, which you can download here.

It’s late afternoon and you need to stretch your legs, why not grab a friend and head over to photograph headstones in a local cemetery? You’ll get your daily dose of exercise, fresh air, and your headstone photos will help others with their research far into the future. You can even fulfill some photo requests!
Before you leave on your cemetery outing, you’ll want to: 
Check out our Cemetery Guide.  Download the free Find A Grave app   
Here are some suggestions and tips for photographing a headstone.  
  Use a camera or cellphone with GPS enabled to add the grave’s location.  Make sure your lens is clean and avoid including your fingers, feet, or shadow.  Make sure the stone is readable; remove debris such as soil, leaves, or twigs. Take multiple photos. This will give you more choices when uploading photos to the site.  Photograph the entire headstone straight on so that it nearly fills the frame. If the stone is upright, you may need to kneel to get the best shot. You can photograph at different readable angles as well.  If the headstone has multiple sides with text, then photograph each side.  A close up of text on the headstone.  An area photo of the stone, giving context and showing surroundings of the grave.  A shadow can help text be more pronounced, morning or evening may be best.  Consider using reflective material (such as mirror or foil on flat surface) to cast light on the stone.  If there is not a marker for the grave, take photos of the grave location in context to the surrounding stones. Add to the caption that the grave is unmarked.