Discover Unique Burial Customs in Greece
Discover unique burial customs in Greece! Some of them are unbelievable, from washing the deceased’s bones in wine to the use of a “bone box”. There is hardly a prettier place on earth than Greece, with its turquoise waters and hillsides covered in white-washed buildings….
Schoolteacher Restoring Headstones and History
Restoring headstones was not on schoolteacher Andrea Chamberlain’s “to-do” list the day she came across a neglected cemetery, but it quickly became one of the top priorities in her life. The quiet fields of Evergreen Cemetery in Girard, Michigan, hold more than simple headstones. They…
10 Famous Graves and their Interesting Stories
Here are 10 famous graves you’ll want to visit – whether in-person or virtually: from Oscar Wilde to George Washington. Some people have enduring legacies. Interest in their lives continues even after they have passed away. They attracted crowds during their lives, and continue to…
20 Gravestone Angels from Colonial America
20 gravestone angels from Colonial America – preserved with the BillionGraves app! If you had died in Colonial America, there is a good chance that an angel would have been carved on your gravestone. Perhaps the angel would have been a bit funny-looking by today’s…
10 Things You Never Knew About Funeral Home History
10 things you never knew about funeral home history? Yes. Burial ceremonies have existed since the beginning of time but many traditions have changed. Our ancestors’ experiences when someone died were quite different from our own. The first funeral home in the United States was…
What’s New, BillionGraves? 10 Great New Features!
What’s new, BillionGraves? Well, a LOT! Here are 10 great new features for you to explore on the BillionGraves website. There’s something here for every BillionGraves fan! So whether you are a volunteer photographer, transcriber, or family history researcher, these new features are sure to…
10 Steps to Planning a Group Cemetery Event
Across the world, gravestones are deteriorating, and erosion is erasing the precious details of our ancestors’ lives. BillionGraves, the world’s largest GPS-linked cemetery database, can help. The BillionGraves smartphone app can be used to document gravestones. Then, even if a loved one’s gravestone is damaged…
Lake View Cemetery: One of the Prettiest in the World
Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the prettiest garden cemeteries in the world. With more than 115,000 gravestones, it is also huge. If you go, bring your walking shoes! There is something about this cemetery that makes me think of these song…
Types of Gravestones: from Fieldstone to Granite
Understanding the different types of gravestones used throughout history can help genealogists and family historians figure out when a marker was placed. Our ancestors were likely to have grave markers made of one of the following materials depending on when they lived: Types of Gravestones:…
Gravestone Cleaning Tips from BillionGraves
Gravestone cleaning can turn back the wheels of time to make your ancestor’s final resting place nearly as beautiful as the day their family members gathered there to wish them farewell. Time has been hard on gravestones that were originally considered nearly permanent. Weathering, erosion,…
10 Cemetery Walking Tours from Around the World
So if art, history, and nature are your passions, a cemetery walking tour will probably be right up your alley. (Warning: these 10 cemetery walking tours from around the world may make you get the “travel bug”!) Cemetery Walking Tour #1: Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans,…
RootsTech 2025 with BillionGraves
RootsTech 2025 with BillionGraves was an exciting and inspiring event for family history enthusiasts. Come peek over our shoulder and share our experience, as the BillionGraves team attended the world’s largest genealogy conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 6 – 8, surrounded by tens…