“What’s New, BillionGraves?” 8 Great Tips!
“What’s new, BillionGraves?” Lots of things! Below are 8 great tips that will help you find your own ancestors and enable you to help others grow their family trees. BillionGraves has an amazing new map to help you find cemeteries where gravestone photos still need…
10 of the World’s Most Beautiful Cemeteries
“10 of the World’s Most Beautiful Cemeteries” – it’s a list that should be easy to compile! But there are SO many beautiful cemeteries around the world it is a challenge to choose just ten. There are cemeteries that overlook the ocean, cemeteries deep in…
The Final Resting Places of Three Famous Authors
The final resting places of three famous authors – William Shakespeare, Jule Verne, and Charles Dickens – are a remembrance of those who spent their lifetime sculpting their thoughts into stories, plays, and scripts that have inspired the world. It has been said that “A writer…
Final Resting Places of 3 Classical Music Composers
The final resting places of three classical music composers – Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart – remind us of a musician’s ability to “let the last note linger”. A lingering note is the feeling that is left in the air after a song has ended….
Ostrich Feather Funerals of the Victorian Era
Ostrich feather funerals might sound very odd to us in our day but in the 1800s, they were all the rage. An elegant funeral just wouldn’t have been prestigious at all without an abundance of ostrich feathers. The fluffy plumes could be found just about…
Autumn Cemetery Color Tours
Alright, leaf-peepers, ready for a road trip!? Autumn cemetery color tours are one of the best ways to enjoy the season’s brilliant leaves. This blog post is a great way to discover some US cemeteries you can enjoy as you take gravestone photos. Fall is…
Grave Robbers in the Victorian Era
Grave robbers were a common problem in Victorian-era cemeteries. They stole everything from rings and necklaces to the bodies themselves. “Rest in Peace” is a common epitaph on older gravestones but this wasn’t just a trite phrase in the 1800s. Family members were genuinely concerned…
Victorian Mourning Clothes
Victorian mourning clothes may have been hanging in your ancestor’s closet during the 1800s – a black dress with a high neck, black leather button-up shoes, a black top hat, and more. And when death brought those black clothes out of storage, your ancestors may…
Preparing the Victorian Home for a Funeral
Preparing the Victorian home for a funeral was an all-consuming task. Upper and middle-class families tried to memorialize their loved one’s passing like Queen Victoria herself. And that wasn’t easy. When Queen Victoria’s husband passed away, she remained in mourning for the rest of her…
10 Victorian Cemetery Traditions
Victorian cemetery traditions were very intimate. Funerals were often held in the home and mourning periods lasted for decades. Today, death is more removed from everyday life. Most people spend their final days in a hospital or nursing home. If someone does die at home,…
Undertaker Advertisements from the 1800s
Undertaker advertisements of the 1800s hold fascinating information about the days in which our ancestors lived. Would you like to know if your ancestor’s community had elaborate funerals or quiet memorials? Check the undertaker’s ads! Would you like to know how much your ancestor might…
Native American Burial Rituals
Native American burial rituals can help us to understand the values of unique groups of people. In the early 1900s, when my grandmother was about five years old, she was playing outside with her twin sister in rural Michigan when a Native American man came…