Since you’ll be walking around outside, bring along a bottle of water, and apply sunscreen before you leave the house. If you’re going in the summertime, you’ll need to reapply the sunscreen if you’ll be outside for more than 2 hours. Depending on the time of year and where you’re going, it may be a good idea to bring bug spray.

Some of these maps will list individual graves, while others might include only family plots. Some may even be just a basic grid outline of the cemetery, but even that can help you streamline your search.

It may be helpful to bring a piece of paper and a pencil and draw a rough diagram of the cemetery to help you keep track of the plots you already looked at. If it’s a very large cemetery, you may need to have someone else start at the other side or break your visit into multiple days.

You might also be able to speak to the clergy who oversaw the services. Even if they don’t have a record, they may remember the general area in which the person is buried.

Often in this situation, the funeral home will be located on the grounds of the cemetery.

This is because families often buy multiple graves at the same time so they can be laid to rest together. These groupings are called family plots.

If you don’t know the person’s exact date of birth or when they died, at least try to estimate when they would have lived.

Since some combinations of first and last names are more common, having the person’s middle name will help narrow down your search significantly. If you’re not sure of the person’s full name, their date of birth, or when they died, try looking in family bibles, baptismal records, or obituaries. You may be able to find the person’s death certificate by contacting their local county clerk’s office. However, if the person died before the 1930s, they may not have a death certificate.

Many of these sites require a fee to use all of their features, although you may be able to sign up for a free trial in some cases. Two of the most popular genealogy websites are https://www. ancestry. com/ and https://www. archives. com/.

In many cases, volunteers take photos of gravesites and upload them. One of the most popular cemetery databases is https://www. findagrave. com/. You could also check https://billiongraves. com/. There may also be databases which are specific to your region. For example, if you’re Dutch, you could visit https://www. dutchgenealogy. nl/online-cemeteries/.

Two sites that might be helpful include https://www. vets. gov/burials-and-memorials/find-a-cemetery/ and https://m. va. gov/gravelocator/. If you’re looking for someone buried in a specific military cemetery, check to see if there’s an independent website. For instance, you can find the location of a grave at Arlington National Cemetery by visiting https://www. arlingtoncemetery. mil/Explore/Find-a-Grave.