How to Create and Manage a Find a Grave Memorial for a Loved One

Find a Grave began as a hobby site for locating famous graves and became, through millions of volunteer contributions, the most complete public record of where Americans are buried. A memorial there is how distant relatives, future genealogists and, often, delivery Runners find a grave. If your loved one does not have one, making it takes twenty minutes.

Step 1: Search first

Volunteers photograph whole cemeteries and create memorials from obituaries, so there is a good chance one already exists. Search by name, with a death year if you have it, and check the cemetery. Duplicate memorials are the site's biggest problem; if one exists, improve it rather than making another.

Step 2: Create the memorial

With a free account, choose "Add a memorial", select the cemetery (search by name and town; if the cemetery itself is missing, it can be added), and enter the name, birth and death dates, and any biography. The biography can be the obituary, a paragraph, or nothing; it can be edited later. Save, and the memorial has a permanent ID and URL.

Step 3: Add the plot and the photos

• Plot: section, lot and grave, in the Plot field. This is what makes the memorial useful to anyone trying to find the grave. Our guide to finding a grave explains how to get these from the cemetery.
• GPS: the app can capture the location at the graveside, which puts a pin on the cemetery map.
• Headstone photo: the single most valuable addition. Take it straight on, in even light, with the inscription legible. If you cannot get there, use "Request a photo" and a local volunteer will take one, usually within a few weeks.
• Portrait: a photo of the person, which becomes the memorial's main image.

Step 4: Link the family

Memorials link to each other: parents, spouse, children, siblings. Adding those links turns a single record into a family tree that genealogists, including your own descendants, will follow. Search for each relative's memorial and add the link from the edit page.

Managing a memorial someone else made

If a volunteer created your relative's memorial, you can ask to manage it. Find a Grave's rules give priority to close family; use "Suggest edits" or the transfer request on the memorial, explain the relationship, and the volunteer will normally transfer it. Once you manage it you can edit everything, approve others' suggested edits, and add photos.

Flowers on Find a Grave

Visitors can leave virtual flowers and notes on a memorial. They are a kind gesture and cost nothing, and many families appreciate them. They are not, of course, flowers at the grave. For that, the memorial is the starting point: a BloomBridge Runner uses the cemetery, plot and headstone photo from Find a Grave to locate the grave and place real flowers, and the delivery photo goes on your BloomBridge memorial page, which many families link from the Find a Grave memorial.

A few conventions

• Use the name on the headstone as the primary name, with maiden names in the field provided.
• Do not create memorials for living people; the site removes them.
• Be generous with photo permissions; the photos are why the site works.
• Check back occasionally. Volunteers and relatives add information over the years, and suggested edits wait for the manager's approval.