Walking through cemeteries or graveyards will cause genealogists to become excited. Even if those buried there are not related, genealogists seems to thrive on viewing tombstones. They will not complain ever about bug bites, scratches from briars or even poison ivy as long as they can look at tombstones.
If it is impossible to visit a graveyard, the next best thing is Internet. There are hundreds of graveyard web pages to explore. One of the classic places to look for tombstone information and photographs is FindAGrave. You can also leave a request for a volunteer to take a photograph of a particular tombstone. Many USGenWeb pages have links to cemetery records, some with photographs and some linking to outside sources. Be sure to check out the US GenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project. You can almost always find somebody who will go to a cemetery and take photographs on Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.
Have some leisure time? Check out Flickr for photographs of cemeteries. If you enter a variety of search terms, something may pop up that is interesting. How about exploring a variety of web pages to see how they differ and what they contain? Here are a few that are interesting ...
A Very Grave Matter - New England cemeteries
Graveyards and Gravestones - over 2,300 gravestones
Nationwide Gravesite Locator - federal government maintained cemeteries
It is also fun to follow blogs devoted to cemetery research. Some of my favorites are ...
Some parting words of wisdom, aka cemetery superstitions. Be careful ... if you take three steps backward when leaving a loved one's grave, you will die within three months. Don't say I didn't warn you!
