That resource is a little site called http://www.findagrave.com/, ya I know it sounds really weird and unofficial. And kind of it is, but I thought it was cool. Find a Grave is a website started by I have no idea who, but they had the idea to go to cemeteries all across the country and take pictures of gravestones and post them online for anyone to have access to. Sometimes they even have other information with the picture. For example...I decided to search for my dad's grave since it's in a small out of the way town known as Hooper, UT. This is what I found.
Birth: Nov. 20, 1959
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake County
Utah, USA
Death: Nov. 13, 2002
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake County
Utah, USA
Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT) - November 15, 2002
Stewart Ross Lemmon passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2002, at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah of leukemia.
He was born in Salt Lake City on November 20, 1959, the son of Earl Scott and Maxine Harrison Lemmon. He attended Weber High and served an LDS mission in Munich Germany.
He was married to Tamilynn Hogan on September 24, 1982 in the Logan Temple. He was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in a bishopric, on a High Council, but his favorite calling was as a Sunday School teacher. He also enjoyed spending time with his family in the outdoors, hunting, fishing and camping.
He is survived by his mother, Maxine Lemmon, his wife, Tamilynn Lemmon and four children: Krystal Lynn, Kyle Stewart, Jackson Earl and Tanner Ross. He is also survived by his three brothers and three sisters: Lee Nelson, Salt Lake City; Lani (George) Tolman, CO; Charlotte (James) Trainor, California; Valarie (Hagos) Egzibher, N.C.; Scott Lemmon and Steven Lemmon, both of Ogden. He was preceded in death by his fathers, Grover Thompson and Earl Scott Lemmon and his father-in-law, Jack D. Hogan.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, Nov. 16, 2002 at 11:00 a.m. at the Hooper North Chapel, 5000 S. 5900 W. Friends may call at Myers Mortuary in Roy, 5865 S. 1900 W. on Friday, November 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. and on Saturday at the Church from 9:45-10:45 a.m. Interment, Hooper Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the family.
Burial: Hooper Cemetery
Hooper
Weber County
Utah, USA
The picture of the headstone itself is an awesome family history find, especially because my dad's has a ton of information on it if you know what to look for. Birth and death dates, full name, name of spouse, birth of spouse, marriage date (and if you notice the temple picture you could assume they were married in the temple), and names of children. Most headstones don't have that much info on them though.
Having the obituary included in the information was awesome! Obituaries are like family history gold mines. From them you can get every thing you need to complete a person's temple work, and get lots of ideas about family members to search out and where to start looking.
And yes, obviously, I already know this info about my dad, and have seen his headstone before (helped design it in fact), and have copies of his obituary, but I'm just using it as an example of the kinds of things you can find on this website. Other things you can do on the website are add your own pictures, leave flowers at the virtual grave (ya, that's kind of weird), leave messages, and put down your contact info in case other family members come on the site and want to get a hold of you.
Anyways, it's a lot faster than grave hunting yourself. Trust me, we spent about 4 hours once in the American Fork Cemetery looking for some of Aaron's ancestors. So give it a try and let me know what you think.
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