Breathing new life into old photos since 2012.

Category: Find-A-Grave

The Majesty of Side-Lit Gravestones

“The biggest improvement in my photos since I learned to take the lens cap off.” ~ ajmexico

WillsThe next big thing, not only in my own genealogy, but also for the genealogical research services that I will begin to offer this fall, will be gravestone photos lit from the side by an off-camera flash. I’m hard pressed to imagine a better method for photographing gravestones. This method produces higher contrast without recourse to smearing foreign substances onto the fragile monuments with grubby hands. No chalk, no flour, just pure white light.  Continue reading

Find-A-Grave Community Day 2014, Part 2: Philadelphia National Cemetery

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Aron Mackiey’s landscape photo turned out rather well. His marker is at left.

I wrote last week about the fine time I had with the Lansdowne meetup for Find-A-Grave Community Day at Fernwood Cemetery. We have kept quite good contact since then, and now have a keen mailing list were we keep our discussion topics in order. One of these topics, if I’m not prematurely announcing it, is a return to Fernwood Cemetery as a group in late November to continue whittling away at the rather large photo request list that still remains.

I also wrote of an expected sequel to that post, and I’d like to deliver on that prognostication. Continue reading

Find-A-Grave Community Day 2014, Part 1: Fernwood Cemetery

The Lansdowne Find-A-Grave Meetup, gathered at Fernwood Cemetery for Community Day.

The Lansdowne Find-A-Grave Meetup, gathered for Community Day. Photo by sid, annotated by sneakersox.

This past Saturday, October 18th, was Find-A-Grave Community Day. I made myself useful and joined the Lansdowne meetup at Fernwood Cemetery in Yeadon. This fine historic cemetery is located just outside of West Philadelphia. Despite the best efforts of its friendly and helpful staff, 384 unfulfilled requests have been left to accumulate there. Local Find-A-Graver Jenn O. decided to do something about that, and so she organized the Lansdowne meetup using Fernwood cemetery maps that she accumulated after years of research, and burial locations culled from Ancestry.com’s Pennsylviana Church and Town records.

Eleven of us met at the cemetery at 10:00 for introductions, assignments, e-mail exchange, and a group photo. Two additional gravers joined us shortly thereafter. We each went off to separate sections to fulfill our assignments, and occasionally met one another out in the field and shared our successes. Most of us continued photographing until about two o’clock.

Find-A-Graver CLC cameos in this photo of the Beath family monument.

Find-A-Graver CLC cameos in this photo of the Beath family monument.

We didn’t plan to reconvene after the event. For next time, I’m submitting a motion to meet up afterwards for pizza and stories. Despite not having reconvened at the cemetery after the event, we have since re-connected by e-mail, and we are looking forward to future Find-A-Grave meetup events.

Fernwood’s Find-A-Grave stats, as of Saturday morning were 10757 interments and 384 photo requests. It’s current stats, as of noontime, Monday, October 20, are: 11,136 interments and 298 photo requests, and that is despite 11 new requests having been entered since the start of the event. Needless to say, we put a rather large dent in Fernwood’s requests list, and substantially expanded its database. Many thanks to Jenn O. for organizing the meetup, and for my other fellow gravers for their great work!

I was quite pleased with the way many of my own photo contributions turned out. After finishing my assignments there, I rolled on over to my favorite adopted cemetery, Philadelphia National Cemetery, and many took more photos there. Those photos will be the subject of the sequel to this post, due out later this week. For now, enjoy my contributions to Find-A-Grave Community Day with the Lansdowne Meetup!:  Continue reading

Memorial Day Weekend, 2014, at Philadelphia National Cemetery

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Sgt. James Paul Michio.

I had occasion this weekend to visit the Philadelphia National Cemetery to fulfill several Find-A-Grave photo requests. In a humbling display of dedication, just about every marker in the cemetery to had been accented with the colors of the Star-Spangled Banner, in celebration of their achievements as members of the U. S. military. I could only imagine the effort. These pictures turned out quite remarkably, I must say, where the light was favorable. I found the scenes too inspirational to keep between myself and the Find-A-Grave users who requested them. I therefore present to you for your consideration, Philadelphia National Cemetery’s Find-A-Grave photo requests, Memorial Day Weekend, 2014.  Continue reading