Like so many other web pages, this one will have a place for the publication of thoughts or beliefs of the creator. On this page you may find anything from writings on cemetery surveying to religion. Since we are putting all of this effort into this site...well we might as well have a place to throw out some thoughts or beliefs just like everyone else...right!

The first rambling will concern some of the issues that have come up during the collection of the data shown on this site. We started off with an idea in mind, but as with all great things, it changed as we went along.

Our main objective was to get a photograph of the headstone with a positon. Simple enough. But what to do when several names appear on a single stone? One position...several positions? How to handle Jr., SR., III? How should the search routine work? What information would the person using this site need to have prior to starting?

Too many questions, not enough answers.

First, we believed that everyone coming to a site like this would have a last name to start with. So that was the main search information. If this was a Sr. or a Jr. should make little difference since they both will appear in the listing. Our return page from the search should have as much information from the database to allow the user to be able to make a decision as to which photo to look at. If the user could quickly view several photos on that return list, they could decide which is the correct grave. Right?

We left the first name in our search only for those unique names that would allow a managable return list. You can search "John" of "William" if you like but I wouldn't expect too much from it. But if the first name is "Uriah" you might try and find something that way.

Lastly we added cemetery to the search. We will be doing several small church graveyards around North Carolina and you might be able to search the entire listing within one cemetery this way.

We try to take the photo in such a way as to see the information concerning each indidvual centered in the picture. If there are two or more names on a single stone, we try to center on one at a time. There will also be a unique lat/long for both. Our equipment allows us to associate one photo to one position. Thus there will be a single listing for each name on a stone.

We hope to rewrite the search routine to allow you to search based on several variables soon, but we wanted to get this site up and working as soon as possible, so we decided not to wait. We like taking pictures and getting them posted with the hope that some people might be able to find a relative from here in North Carolina. We also hope to be expanding our area soon to other regions and states.

We really do hope that you find someone within our database that you have been wanting to find out about for a long time. And that the associated photo points you to even a better understanding of who and what that person was like.

This is a new concept in genealogy, but we believe that soon GPS positions and imags of gravesites could and should become stadards in genealogy data research. The recordation today of all the information in a genealogy file has grown over the years to include many different forms of data. Computer programs, and the internet connections that they contain, allow for an abundance of census information, as an example, that just a few years ago would have been overwhelming to do by hand. Why should an image of the ancestors' gravedtone and a way to find it over a long period of time not become the standard addition to all genealogy research?

Even today, most graveyards do not have great grid systems to navigate to the gravesite with. Here in North Carolina where we are based for instance, hundreds if not thousands of family graveyards exist with no grid system or layout method available. GPS offers an accurate and convient method for their documentation. Enter Gaveyard Images.

We have now updated our search routine to allow searches on the Middle Name field of our database.

This is to serve several needs. First it will help when an individual has a very unique middle name. Just another way to shorten the search results!

More importantly, it is the custom in many parts of this great country for women to use their maiden names as a middle name after marriage. A great many families can be traced by this method!

Come back regularly...as things just keep changing.