Looking for a healthy, outdoor, and socially-distant activity? Look no further than your local cemetery and volunteer to become a “Graver.” Wait! What? Walk around a cemetery? It is not as macabre as it seems. Gravers are volunteers who visit cemeteries to research, clean, transcribe, photograph and document graves, cenotaphs, and burial sites for Find A Grave. Gravers upload the information and photographs to a memorial they create on the Find A Grave website. Find A Grave, the world’s largest gravesite collection, is an online virtual cemetery (think Facebook for the deceased) with over 190 million documented burial sites from more than 244 countries and more than 100 million photographs. Attempting to “document the resting place of everyone who has died,” Find A Grave boasts over one million registered users who add more than 50,000 memorials and burial sites each day,
But why? For some, who may live too far to visit their loved ones burial site, memorials on Find A Grave provide links to their past including information on relatives who may be buried nearby. Memorials also provide documentation for genealogical research. Preservationists, historians, and military buffs also rely on gravers for accurate documented burial information. “Tombstone Tourists” utilize Find A Grave to plan trips to the burial sites of the famous.
Some gravers enjoy the rich history of grave marker symbolism, others seek to learn more about the traditions of the cemetery (the meaning of coins placed on military headstones, rocks placed on headstones, etc.) but all enjoy the outdoor exercise as they walk to remember and reflect.
A cemetery is often quiet, serene and peaceful. The well manicured space provides a safe walking course and most gravers walk an average of 3-4 miles per visit. Many gravers listen to music or books as they scour the cemetery searching for headstones.
How can I get involved? Go to FindAGrave.com and sign up to become a member and graver for free. Simply add your location and how far you are willing to travel to fulfill requests. Requests will be sent to your email but you do not have to accept every request. If unclaimed after 3 days, the request goes public on the Find A Grave website for others to research. You can also volunteer to photograph portions of a cemetery as you have time. Once you have been approved for membership, you are also able to request memorials from others.
Step outside your comfort zone, join Find A Grave, help others, and get walking!