How to Find Cemetery Records and Headstone Photos Online
The headstone exists. Somewhere, in a cemetery you may never have visited, there is a stone with the name and dates of someone you've been trying to find. You don't need to fly there to see it.
Here's how to find cemetery records and headstone photographs online, for free.
The Best Free Resources
Find A Grave (findagrave.com) is the largest free database of cemetery records and headstone photographs in the world — over 220 million memorials. Volunteers have photographed headstones across thousands of cemeteries. Search by name and narrow by location. If a photo exists, it's usually here.
BillionGraves (billiongraves.com) is a rival database built similarly, with GPS-tagged headstone photos. Particularly strong in the American West and internationally.
USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project — volunteers have transcribed thousands of rural American cemeteries that have never been photographed. Useful for small county cemeteries.
FamilySearch.org — completely free, holds billions of records including cemetery transcriptions, death certificates, and burial indexes. Particularly strong for older records (pre-1950).
Interment.net — older but still useful for smaller cemetery transcription projects.
Requesting a Headstone Photo
If you've found a record on Find A Grave but there's no photo, you can submit a photo request. Volunteers in that area will receive the request and, if they're willing, go photograph it.
The request is free. Photos are usually fulfilled within days to months, depending on location and volunteer availability.
State-Specific Cemetery Databases
Many states maintain their own digital cemetery records:
- Texas: Texas State Library maintains a cemetery database - Ohio: Ohio Cemeteries database at grave.ohiohistory.org - New England states: Several state genealogical societies have mapped most historic cemeteries - Veterans: The National Cemetery Administration has a gravesite locator at gravelocator.cem.va.gov for all national and state veterans cemeteries
Death Certificates as a Starting Point
If you don't know where someone was buried, the death certificate usually lists the burial location. Most states have publicly searchable death certificate indexes with varying privacy restrictions by time period.
Once you have the cemetery name and location, Find A Grave and BillionGraves can usually take you to the specific record — and often a photograph.
Adding to the Permanent Record
Cemetery records tell you where someone's body is. They don't tell you who the person was.
If you're researching someone and want to preserve more than dates and a location, Eternaflame lets you add a full profile — biography, family connections, places, military service, interests — for free. The cemetery record and the life record belong together.
Add someone to the permanent record — free forever.