Memorial Photocrafting

It seems appropriate for Memorial Day weekend to highlight a way in which photocrafting can contribute to honoring the past. FindAGrave.com has collected over 190 million cemetery records as a subsidiary of Ancestory.com. A most crucial part of each record are the photos of the cemetery, the gravesite, and the headstones. All of this information is provided by unpaid volunteers. We have focused on ways photocrafting can benefit us and our friends. This is an opportunity to benefit others as well.

A few years ago, I created an account on FindAGrave in conjunction with working on a family tree in Ancestry.com. One of the opportunities is to sign up to ask for photos I want from cemeteries not near me and also to take photos for others in cemeteries that are close to me. I can specify a particular cemetery that I might be visiting elsewhere as well.

I was planning a visit to Kansas and knew I would visit Hope Cemetery there so I made a list of all the photo requests for that site. One example is the request for Mary Stoy. The request lists the FindAGrave id, the first name, the last name, the birthdate, the date of death, the plot location (if known), and any notes from the requester.

When in Kansas, I went to Hope Cemetery and located the Stoy gravesite. I took two pictures, one intended to capture the headstone and immediate surroundings and a second to show the detail of the inscription. I’m not a professional photographer and it shows! Note that I didn’t get the full top of the headstone included. I also didn’t do a good job in the sun of avoiding the shadows. In retrospect, I wish I had a third photo that showed the gravestone with more of the surroundings. That offers more context and helps others find the location of the site.

I uploaded the photos to FindAGrave. This was a photo request so not surprisingly there were no other photos on the page for Mary Stoy’s gravesite. I selected one of the two as the default. Both photos appear on the Photos tab.

I always try to take photos of the overall cemetery as well. There’s a page for each cemetery in FindAGrave so I uploaded the photo to add to the others that were there.

There are lots of tips and a few DON’Ts. I’ve pulled some from the sites that I found offering good information. I encourage you to look at these for additional suggestions.

FindAGrave Cemetery Guide:
Spray bottle with plain water– Wetting tombstones can make them more readable. 
Small sweeping brush– Paint brushes work well to brush loose dirt off without harming fragile stones. 
Use non-invasive methods …Shaving cream and chemical solvents should not be used because they can harm the stone. 

FindAGrave Headstone Photography:
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 headstone has multiple sides with text, then photograph each side. 

Tips for Photographing Gravestones:
One showing the whole cemetery.
Shoot an image that includes the closest stones and provides context.
Photograph the whole gravestone so that inscription and carving are visible.
Make sure to take at least one picture where the inscription fills the camera frame.

It’s easy to navigate FindAGrave and an account is straightforward with no cost and no deluge of email messages. I do get a message when there’s a photo request near my location. If I can, I “claim” it and go take a photo. More often, I note it and when I have time, check the requests for that cemetery and plan a time to take pictures of all the requests for that location.