[Updated 5 May 2025]
Everything you access and enjoy on Find a Grave has been added by our community, freely given and freely shared. Contributions of memorial information, photos, corrections and other data to the site are what have made Find a Grave a beloved and valuable resource for millions of people.
As the site grows, the cost of hosting and delivering the information grows with it. Find a Grave is free to use and contribute to. Financial support for the site comes from banner advertising on the site, support from Ancestry and sponsorships from the community.
Most of the financial support for the site comes from third-party ads which are banner ads on the site that promote external services and products. They are provided by third-party companies that are not directly affiliated with Find a Grave, Ancestry, or services offered within the Ancestry family of sites.
While these third-party ads support the site, some site members find them annoying or distracting, so for many years, members have been asking for a way to remove third-party advertisements and support Find a Grave directly. We recently introduced a Site Sponsorship option that will let you do both. You’ll be supporting the site as we grow, innovate, and move Find a Grave forward and also enjoy other benefits, including:
- No 3rd party ads when you use the site
- Add 2 additional photos to non-famous memorials
- No ads on your profile page
- (Optional) An acknowledgement of your sponsorship will display on your profile page
You can learn more about the details in our Site Sponsorship support article, which includes answers to some common questions.
If you’d like to become a site sponsor, go to your Account Settings and select Site Sponsorship. There are two different options:
- $25 for a 6 month sponsorship
- $50 for a 1 year sponsorship
Site Sponsorship is not supported in all countries at this time, so you may not see the option in your account if you are accessing Find a Grave from a country where it is not available.
You can continue to use Find a Grave just as you have been whether you choose to become a Site Sponsor or not. Site Sponsorship is just another way for members to support the site and remove ads if they choose to.
We’re grateful for all our members and recognize and value all the different ways you contribute to the site. The additions and corrections you make help keep the site growing and blessing the lives of everyone who visits it. Financial support can help keep the lights on and the site up and running. Thank you for your participation, help and support to find, document, and record graves and share this information with everyone.
If priority response time from support was a benefit, I’d be all over this.
Gosh, me too.
I would sponsor if that addition was part of the deal. While researching a memorial, it’s so annoying to wait 3 weeks for suggestions to be dealt with.
Surely If a manager has so many memorials they can’t respond within 7 days themselves, then perhaps they’re actually not able to ‘manage’ the thousands they cling to.
The problem is that too many of these managers don’t even try to verify edits and allow them all to go to autoaccept. Many of them even publicize this in their profiles.
I would just like to be able to get a response in significant questions/issues faster than WEEKS.
Sometimes Find a Grave is slow in emailing a memorial manager the suggestion or the manager rejects it. Seems like suggestions hardly ever make it to my mail box.
Id sponsor all memorials if given control of what is uploaded to them . I dont like death certificates or copyrighted obituaries on my memorials. Also I get multiple photos of their gravestone!
I have submitted to findagrave but only family connections. However suggestions don’t always reach the submitter. Because I primarily only submit ancestors I am not often on the site and sometimes it is only when I log in that I see a suggestion. As well I have on occasion been rudely responded to when I have been asked to change a death or birth date that is on a headstone when I have other records that indicate the headstone is incorrect. … Sandra
Thanks for your comments. Right now members need to sign in to see the notifications for suggested edits. We look forward to making some changes to help with this. We’re sorry that there have been some unkind comments. If a member is in violation of our terms and conditions or community rules, please contact us at support@findagrave.com with the details and we will assist. You might add a note on the memorial about the headstone being incorrect also.
Amen to that! it infuriates me that my local memorials that I asked to manage after a contributing cousin died was given to someone with over 100,000 memorials! It is like pulling teeth to try to get anything done!
If the member was marked as a fallen graver, the memorials were managed by Find a Grave and open to the community to request to manage. You can send suggested edits for the memorials if they are managed by another member. If that member is not managing the memorials responsibly, please contact our team with examples and we will assist.
I agree. Several “manage” 20,000 or more graves. When I’ve sent edits for family members, they never respond. Several have said the info is there, but they are too busy to edit. Then, they need to send the management of that memorial to the family members wanting the edit.
Suggested edits will automatically process at the 21 day mark. One can always update the memorial. You can also contact our support team and we can reach out to the member about managing the memorials.
Please don’t generalize. I have over 6 thousand memorials and I respond within 24 hours. I check the site every day. Sometimes when I sign on, someone has been up all night working on their tree and now I have almost 100 edits to review. More and more, edits don’t follow the sites rules. I volunteer my time, I’m not paid and neither is anyone else. They are always looking for Managers because people lose interest, people die, people lose access to the internet…. Contact Administration and ask if you can help by taking on a caseload from someone who is no longer active.
I am not “clinging “ to memorials. PLEASE request transfers. Thank you
J agree. I wondered when they would get on the cash train. Find A Grave has always been free. Also, all the material is donated by volunteers. Pretty good deal, if you ask me.
Find a Grave is still free and you can continue to use it with ads just as you always have. Site Sponsorship is an option for those would like to use the site without 3rd-party banner ads.
I love Find A Grave and appreciate that it is all volunteer! I do lots of research and verification before I request any updates. I am so grateful when they are acknowledged and updated. It does not really matter to me how long it takes, I just keep on plugging along trying to link families together where possible and proven by research. It gives me joy to research and be able to accomplish this. It is a team effort. I admire very much all the people who volunteer and make Find a grave even possible! Such a blessing. Thank you to one and all!!!
God love and bless you all!! Sincerely, Gail Forsberg
I agree with Fran and I wonder sometimes if the manager has perhaps “passed on” and no one knows for a long time. Maybe the Findagrave management should reachout to all us who manage, now and then or once a year, to see if we are still actively overseeing our graves? I don’t have a problem in sponsor donating to help keep this great site healthy.
They posted a month or more ago that they were sending out an e-mail to all accounts that had not logged in within the last year, and anyone who didn’t respond/log in would be flagged inactive and Find A Grave would take over management of those memorials.
I wish they would take over management of the ones held by people who let all the suggested edits go to auto accept because they are not fulfilling the duties expected by the site.
The founder always intended that Find A Grave should remain free. I have put a lot of time into this site and have contributed quite a bit, and I have sponsored some memorials and even purchased some Find A Grave merch. I have to say, I AM one of the people who clicks on ads and checks things out. Especially automotive stuff, food, travel, etc. The ads don’t bother me anymore. In the early years of Find A Grave, they were obnoxious! The quality of the ads has gone up.
Once the founder sold out to Ancestry, I’m sure that went out the window.
I believe part of the deal to sell to Ancestry was the site is to remain free.
I agree with BJW.
I was one of the first builders of the gravesites. I wrote narratives & took photos for people. Paying for that and having control taken away, especially for relatives, bothers me. I’m not in a financial position to pay for it either.
I love this site and do everything that I can to make it better and contribute as requested. I contribute my share in time and resources to help make it what it is. I take pride in the fact that my area is now transcribed with photos at no charge. I don’t sit in my living room and add data from the computer only. I put leg work into the contribution that I make. I don’t ask for anything monetary because I am a “volunteer”. Volunteers are not in this for money, only preservation.
Amen! So many have wandered innumerable cemeteries and paid all the expenses themselves and did it out of kindness and the joy of giving a little to others; the true definition of a volunteer. Thank you for your devotion, consideration and generosity.
I’m one of those who sit in my living room and add memorials. Over the years I’ve walked many cemetaries all over the country while traveling in an RV. Now, due to age I can’t get out there anymore. I’m sure others are also in my situation. I can still contribute and be a big part of all this. Don’t criticize us for how we try to stay apart of this community. One day you will be old too.
“One day you will be old too.”
If you’re lucky.
You want us to contribute our time and information and pay you, too?!
Thanks for your message. We apologize if there has been some confusion. Find a Grave will continue to be free to use, just as it always has been. Memorial, photo and other contributions members make are essential to the site and a wonderful way to support the Find a Grave community. This Site Sponsorship is just a different option for supporting the site for people who are interested.
How do the 2025 changes mitigate current sponsorships?
Memorial Sponsorship (“current sponsorships”) is a way to remove ads from a particular memorial, removes the ads for everyone who visits that page and is permanent. Site Sponsorship removes ads from the whole site for the sponsor, so that you don’t see banner ads while using the site, and lasts for either 6 months or 1 year. Hope that answers your question.
As clearly stated, this is an option. Let’s not get all worked up. When and if they start to charge, then decide if it’s worth the bucks. I love the site and come here often. Contribute and edit when I have a reason and have never been rejected.
If FG allowed fundraising on a memorial and took a small % that would bring in the $$$.
Let’s say my mother died of Alzheimer’s and on her page I want to accept donations for Alzheimer’s Anonymous (sample only). FG takes a % and that enables them to stay in bz.
I’ve paid to some family members grave yrs ago for ads free.
My question is is that going away with the new Site pay plan? I hope not.
As we mentioned above, the Memorial Sponsorships you have done in the past will continue to remove the ads for everyone who visits the memorials you have sponsored. Nothing about those will change. This new Site Sponsorship option would remove ads from the whole site for you when you use the site–you won’t see 3rd party ads while you use the site.
I contribute a lot of additional info and often photos to my new memorials and those of others that I am updating after cemetery visits, other research, etc. My time and effort is already a valuable resource and I object to subscribing other than to sponsor my personal memorials to eliminate ads on that page. Find $$ by negotiating with ancestry or those that use it for a resource for their own financial gain. Neither pays me either! 5-1-25
No one is requiring/asking you to invest financially. If ads bother a user, they can have them removed by paying a small fee. That’s it. Also, no one is discrediting the time and energy volunteers contribute to the site. Carry on as usual. 😊
That may be, but it still comes across as another way to try to squeeze money out of your volunteers. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to” doesn’t make it a good idea.
The don’t! No one is requiring you to pay or contribute your time.
When they sold out to Ancestry we all knew this was eventually coming. I agree with Joan. I’ve put in over 20 years to this site, walking cemeteries, gathering and posting information and now they want us to pay them!
Thanks for your message. We apologize if there has been some confusion. Find a Grave will continue to be free to use, just as it always has been. Memorial, photo and other contributions members make are essential to the site and a wonderful way to support the Find a Grave community. This Site Sponsorship is just a different option for supporting the site for people who are interested.
I love this site and use it as well as contribute via edits, taking over management of a grave and when I have the opportunity, going to a cemetery and taking photos. Sometimes I upload personal photos or an obituary or info in the bio space provided. Overall I find this to be a very friendly place and I’ve used it for over a decade. Most of the time when I suggest an edit or contact a person on this site, they are pleasant and on the occasion someone hasn’t chosen to do the suggested edit, they said why. Sometimes they do decide to do the edit if I send them a reason such as sources for the edit. These days I usually try to just include the sources for the edit up front. While I usually will respond in 24 hours to any edits or questions, it doesn’t always happen due to being away from the computer. But I do check my email for my account and will see the emails letting me know I have an edit to check out or that my edits have been accepted as I don’t visit Find A Grave on a daily basis. I have had a few ppl contact me for edits to a family grave and I asked if they wanted to manage it as it was non family to me, just a cemetery where I had friends buried and had enjoyed wandering around and photographing it as it is a old, rural cemetery still in use and actively accepting burials.
As long as this site doesn’t go the way of Billion Graves, I will continue using and contributing. I don’t mind having the option to sponsor as a way of removing the ads. As long as the site continues to remain free I can deal with the ads which have gotten better over the years.
THEY THINK IF WE CAN financially support for $50 a year, and like the added benefits, it would help them and anyone with extra income but also help the sponsor. I do need those benefits, so I will continue to sponsor memorials individually.
No they don’t. No one is asking you to pay. It’s simply an option in lieu of viewing ads. Nothing is changing unless you want it to.
You must not have read the entire message. You do not have to pay anything. The site will continue to be free.
I have been volunteering and working for Find a Grave for 24 years. I did this before most people ever heard of Find a Grave. I have spent thousands of dollars for travel to far off cemeteries and actually have found list cemeteries. I am a DAR and National researcher. I did all this to help others in their search and to honor our ancestors. I’ve belonged to Ancestry since its beginning helping others for free. I’ve never taken a penny for volunteering. Don’t you think that volunteers like me should never have to pay a fee? Regards, Bonnie Morris Conrad
Thanks for your message. We apologize if there has been some confusion. Find a Grave will continue to be free to use, just as it always has been. Memorial, photo and other contributions members make are essential to the site and a wonderful way to support the Find a Grave community. This Site Sponsorship is just a different option for supporting the site for people who are interested.
I agree. If it is owned by Ancestry now, my longtime subscription has escalated to $400 yearly now! We shouldn’t have to pay another “sponsorship” fee!
To Minnie R and others:
Find a Grave (FG) is free. If you are paying $400 dollars is for the Ancestry side and not for FG. I Have been a volunteer for over 10 years and understand that it is free and i do not expect any salary or “cut” for doing what i do.
Those that keep complaining that this new site sponsorship is “bad” do not know or understand why it is being offered. It is just voluntary for those that do not want to see any ads. From my point of view, those ads do not bother me because i tuned them out. But if one cannot tune them out, you can stop using the site or become a site sponsor member. It is that simple.
Now to be clear, if FG ever requires a fee to use it OR just to view it, all my memorials will be managed by FG. Currently, my new memorials are limited to close family or to one cemetery in my area and any non family memorials I manage are always available for transfer. I usually check the site at least once a week for any suggestions / updates.
No one is requiring you to pay a fee for anything. It’s simply an option to have an ad-free experience. Nothing is changing for you unless you want it to.
As you can see from the comments of some of your long-time volunteers, this is still a bad idea.
I’ve been a member of Find A Grave for many years & I try to keep up with suggestions that are sent to me. I am not on FG all the time.
I am confused now. I thought donating the money would help rid the site of so many ads. I agree with the volunteers about their service and the meaning of being a volunteer with a purpose. I know not the contract terms with Ancestry, but it seems they benefited because of the VOLUNTEER services. I always thank those who find information or search for another relative at the cemetery. My great-grandmother’s headstone was found “buried” and the volunteer requested the headstone to be reset standing. Her burial would have been lost forever. From that headstone I discovered she was only 25yrs when she died. (she had 4 young children). I always send changes with sources that can be identified, so the volunteer will easily be able to verify the information. When I make a request, I don’t mind if it takes months. I keep a list of “go backs” in my research file. After all, it is a volunteer who is doing the work. At this point I may not get to Wisconsin to search for many things, so I am most grateful for volunteers at Find a Grave or small historical societies even for a small fee to make document copies or send photos.
What you shared is motivational to me. I visited Luveve Cemetery in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. It’s my home town. I took about 20 head stone pictures. How do I send them to Find my grave? Please assist.
Thanks for your question. To contribute you’ll first need to Register for free on Find a Grave, then Add a new cemetery. Once the cemetery is added you can Upload headstone photos from the cemetery page. Those photos are transcribed and the information added for new memorials. The photos are automatically attached to the memorial in the transcribe process. Please visit our support site to learn more.
Suggestion for a newsletter article. Provide tips on how to enter information and use fields appropriately so the sight impaired can access the information.
I am confused. I paid $5 each to sponsors my mom and dad’s memorials. Will their sites remain largely ad-free? Do I need to upgrade to the new layer of sponsorship fee for their memorials to remain totally ad-free? In the meantime, until I get a response, I will re-read the policy to see if there is clarity about my two questions.
HELP NEEDED! Please, someone steer me to 1) HOW to add GPS directions to memorials and 2) HOW I can use GPS directions to locate gravesites? I want to fulfill more Graver requests. It takes me too long to find gravesites when I go to cemeteries to do volunteer Graving. I end up doing one or two or none at all because I cannot locate gravesites, and cemetery maps and/or staff are of little help.
Thanks.
Thanks for the question. The Memorial Sponsorships you have done in the past will continue to remove the ads for everyone who visits the memorials you have sponsored. Nothing about those will change. This new Site Sponsorship option would remove ads from the whole site for you when you use the site–you won’t see 3rd party ads while you use the site.
Perhaps the easiest way to add GPS for a memorial is to add a photo of the gravesite that was taken with a phone or camera with GPS capabilities.
Another way to add GPS to a memorial is to visit the gravesite, open the Find a Grave app, click “Cemetery Search” to find the cemetery you are in, then search for the memorial for the person whose grave you are visiting. In the search list, you’ll see a pin icon on the left side of the search result if that memorial still needs GPS coordinates. Swipe (iOS) or click (Android) to add either a photo or GPS.
You can also add GPS coordinates through the website on the Edit/Suggest Edits page by adding the coordinates manually or by selecting a location on a map.
To use the GPS coordinates once they have been added, just click the “Show Map” link next to the burial details on the website or tap the “Map it” button on the apps.
Hope some of that is helpful. Thanks for your interest in contributing to Find a Grave.
I think this best explained it, in that as a Site Sponsor, I personally would not see ads on ANY pages I personally visited. But those who don’t Site Sponsor, will see Ads on pages that have no page sponsor. Is that correct? If that is the case, it makes a lot of sense.
I remember all the hullabaloo when Ancestry bought Find a Grave. Everyone was convinced that it would become a pay site, even though we were told it would remain free. Some people went so far as to delete all their memorials and remove the photos they have posted. I did none of those things. However, this latest announcement troubles me. I am retired so I am on Find a Grave every day – multiple times a day. I currently manage 34,000+ memorials. I am pleased to say that no edits submitted to me go to auto edit – I accept or reject every edit within 24 hours. Now Find a Grave is trying to increase revenue for the site. I constantly get messages from Find a Grave asking me to disable my ad blocker. No! Has Find a Grave forgotten that we are all volunteers. EVERY BIT of data I contribute (currently 22,000+ memorials and almost 70,000 photos) have been contributed by me to Find a Grave FOR FREE. I have not received any compensation for what I contribute, nor do I want any. But all of us volunteers contribute valuable information to the site FOR FREE. I am getting a little tired of Find a Grave always complaining about their need for more $$$. Hey – everything you have gotten from me to improve your site was freely donated. Find a Grave needs to be very careful about biting the hand that produces all of the information they need FOR FREE.
Right on Jim Craig!
Thanks, Clair!
Thank you so very much for your dedication and devotion to Find A Grave. I have added a lot and would do more if it were not for health problems. I have added photos to my family members and other info, esp if a photo is not available. I really enjoy helping people esp with Find A Grave and genealogy, like most people that donate their time and talents here. I have asked for exits to info, esp the veterans. And the time it takes some people to respond does seem long. And when it is your family, it seems even longer.
I agree with your suggestions about the $$$ thing. It takes time and $$$ on our part to travel to a cemetery, etc, take a good photo and then post them. And when a family member etc sees that grave or photo that they have never seen before… what a special blessing that is. I speak of myself when I can not travel from VA to Arkansas, but when I saw photo of my g-g-great grandfather’s and mother’s head stones… “OH my…”, I was blessed.
Thank you again Jim for all that you do and your words of wisdom to Find A Grave! susan
Right back at ya, Susan! I have photographed tombstones that contain porcelain photos of the departed – in many cases the only photo of the departed that exists. One woman told me when she saw the photos she burst into tears. She said it was the first time in over 60 years she has seen a photo of her grandmother. That’s why we do what we do.
Good reply from you. I agree. P. Lavery
I’m with Jim – I have submitted over 50,000 memorials, representing many hours of effort. I DO respond to requests for updates/corrections almost daily.
Absolutely. There is no business model that could compensate for volunteers’ contributions.
You stated the situation very well!
Jim, thank you so much for everything you do! With your (and all other volunteers) time, energy, financial expenditures, and willingness, this free site has grown to what it is today. Unfortunately, data storage, bandwidth, and numerous other overhead costs continue to rise more and more every year. If I’m understanding correctly, Find A Grave (FG) is keeping the site free. They are only REQUESTING that those who want to help support rising cost may do so with a suggested dollar amount and their dollars would give them the benefit of no ads when they are are on FG for either six month or a year, depending on the amount. They are not changing anything that is already in place. In my mind, I am ‘donating’ X amount of dollars for a worthy cause and they will ‘give me X amount of time without ads’. Most likely, I’ll get an email next year about this time asking if I’d like to renew. For me, I’m willing to help to keep the site free for those who are unable to help financially and to thank all of you volunteers for the incredible work you do out of the goodness of your hearts.
Thank you again for the amazing love you put into this site. Please know that your efforts are recognized and gratefully appreciated.
Well Find A Grave, this one went over like a lead balloon. My take on this “suggestion” is that I already have a subscription to Ancestry, which is now the owner of Find A Grave, so the ability to use Find A Grave without seeing ads should be included in my subscription. I should not have to pay another annual subscription just so I don’t have to deal with intrusive ads while I am trying to make free contributions to this site.
I absolutely agree. If we pay an Ancestry subscription and volunteer countless hours on Find A Grave to help others, both by adding memorials and taking grave marker photos, which adds to Ancestry’s database, our subscription to Ancestry should include the ability not to see ads in Find A Grave. The years given to this pursuit and the countless hours of volunteered time and expense should be honored with this inclusion to our Ancestry subscription. It would be nice if Find A Grave acknowledged our efforts more often, not just when they are looking for more money from us. A yearly email would be appreciated.
I love Find a Grave and it has been very helpful to me in my research of my ancestors. I do genealogy on 7 different families and I have found that Find a Grave is very helpful. I try to answer when someone sends me a message and I have had messages from many that I have asked for help with. I would love to contribute to FG but as I’m older now and my husband and I are having many financial problems and are not able to contribute to anything like we used to. I hope someone can continue my research when I’m gone and can no longer do research. I can’t be on Ancestry as much as I would like to because of the cost I usually on get on it when it is on sale. My husband is in dialysis 3 days a week and I have leukemia so we are both in poor health. I haven’t been on FG for a while due to our illinesses. I can no longer do leg work like I used to and visit cemeteries and take pictures of graves for someone else or even myself but I do appreciate those who can and take the time to do it. I will try to check out my FG and see that it is updated if needed. Thank everyone who has helped make this site available with no cost.
Kay!
So what about those who have already paid for individual memorial sponsorship? Are you saying they will now expire? I have paid sponsorship for a number of memorials. This definitely is a money grab and disservice to sponsorship that was already purchased in perpetuity.
Sponsoring a memorial removes ads from the memorial for everyone and it lasts forever. It is the same as it has been in the past. Site Sponsorship is different in that it removes third party ads from the whole site for you for 6 months or a year and gives you other benefits listed in the blogpost above. They are different options.
Thanks for the clarification.
I am confused by those who have commented that the new Site Sponsorship is forcing them to pay. If I understand the process I only HAVE to pay if I want the site to appear ad free when I use it. I am not being forced to pay to use the site.If I don’t want to sponsor the site, then I see the ads that help pay for what I see. I also don’t see how this has anything to do with my volunteering. I can still add photos, biographical information and such for free. So please explain to me where having a Site Sponsorship is forcing me to pay to use the site. Thanks, Nancy (nannyneedles)
There are free ad-blockers, such as Adblock Plus, available that do this already.
That’s true – I have one that I use. But I periodically get a popup from Find a Grave that says “Please disable your ad blocker.”
Me too – I just ignore it.
As do I, but it’s kind of a nuisance.
From what I understand, you don’t have to pay unless you want to.
It is still free.
I have a complaint. There are 2 men who post photos from their cars. Lot photos. Nothing that’s readable on markers. Many are horizontal photos of markers. I’ve told them repeatedly not to do this because it detracts from the purpose of posting and transcribing markers. I post the ID numbers and they still ask which ones to delete.
I think this site plan is good for those who don’t want to see ads on each page. And I think the sponsorship fees are a good idea as many are antiquated listings. And for a year???
Just found out on Wikitree, I am related to Abigail Quincy Adams and QEII by 15 gens. Those are very low numbers for me. And Abby’s cousin was John Hancock’s wife. I dont add these to my tree but I notify my sibs and cousins.
Thank you to the Find a Grave admins. They have a huge job.
Hi Carol, please contact our support team through our Contact us page with the details. We can help and reach out the members.
Let all understand who owns Findagrave ……. It’s “Ancestry” and I’m sure a lot of you like me are already members of Ancestry and have been for many years ! ……. We have built up Findagrave. I like many others have added lots of graves with links to family members. Quite a lot of work.
Funny, I feel like it’s the other way around. Findagrave has built up Ancestry.
I haven’t minded the ads… so far.
But now I’m getting dunned with pop-up dialogs asking me to selectively disable my ad-blocker. I never installed a separate ad-blocker but the FireFox browser offers some ad blocking. If I could selectively disable it for FindAGrave, I would, but provided instructions don’t work: either a button or link does not exist, or it just doesn’t work.
But I’d still prefer to block the annoying pop-up ads, dancing videos, animated gif ads, and disgusting click-bait I get on a lot of news sites.
I would rather make the one time $10 donation to sponsor a page (usually a relative of mine) and the ads come off. With this new procedure I will do less sponsorship. I’m not going to pay for what amounts to another membership. Ancestry has already increased the sponsorship from $5 to $10. Now they want you to pay for a continuing membership. No thanks.
This is shameful and embarrassing. It’s as if some of you didn’t read the posting. NO ONE is telling you that you must pay. I know the cost of what we do, and I probably have less income that most of you. What FG has offered here is a suggestion, an option, one you don’t even have to opt out of. Your subscription to Ancestry.com (if you have one), helps cover the cost of keeping Ancestry.com up and running. It makes no sense to suggest that Ancestry membership should cover the cost of Find A Grave, especially since Find A Grave does not have subscription membership, and therefore no cost to the user. They’re not saying we MUST pay; they’re making it a option to be free of all those annoying ads. Cause they have to pay for the site somehow. Since it doesn’t actually generate an income (ask your self who is paying a fee to use FG?), the funds to cover the cost of operating it have to come from somewhere. You’re all smarter than this!
It’s actually a good idea, and I’m definitely considering purchasing a sponsorship, even with my limited income.
Tom Pottenger is so spot on. I am astonished at the blowback this OPTION is receiving. No one has been sent a bill or will receive a bill. No one has been asked to sign up for a Site Subscription. I have seen nothing that even encourages contributors to obtain a Site Subscription. Contributors are being offered an opportunity to eliminate seeing any ads on any memorial they view, if they decide that is worth $50/year. Their choice. No pressure. Nothing to do with individual memorial sponsorships or taking advantage of volunteers or a money grab. The site is still free to all. It is an OPTION. Like supersizing a Big Mac. Take it or leave it. While I don’t anticipate this will generate many subscribers, it shows innovative thinking and makes good business sense.
If the annual subscription was £10 or so it would not be an issue and I suspect that a lot of Find a Grave users would pay it. But at $50/year on top of what most of us already pay Ancestry each year we have to think hard. And adblockers cost nothing.
The other aspect is that I have read that website advert revenue is diminishing rapidly. This may be what has triggered the request for subscription revenue.
And those of us who voluntarily contribute to Ancestry’s database should be rewarded with a free subscription.
Ads don’t bother me
The main reason I sponsor individual memorials is so that other people also see them ad-free, not just me. So a site sponsorship, as it only pertains to how I view the site, is not something I personally need.
While I agree with the frustrations listed above, I turned on Billion Graves the other day because a local genealogy group is posting to it exclusively and I was literally aghast. There is so much mess on every page that it’s hard to even be able to focus on the listing itself. I have been a fan of FindAGrave for years now, and even more so when I look at what others have to offer. I’m willing to donate, but I can’t do $50 a year. Thank you FindAGrave for your mere existence.
I’m disappointed with all the negative comments. I have used Find a Grave frequently over several years. I have never been distracted by the ads. I am especially grateful for those who work to provide this service. I often provide additional information when I can verify its accuracy. These additions have been promptly addressed. Thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors who keep this service available. Thank you Find a Grave!
Thank you. Exactly! I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I already pay a great deal to Ancestry.com who owns FG each year. At my age, I have no more funds. If I ever have to quit Ancestry.com, I will support this.
While I know servers and electricity aren’t free, I also know all the information on this website was essentially donated meaning it was free. If Ancestry couldn’t afford to keep the site up, why did they buy it? This is just a way for Ancestry to charge people for something that was provided for free by members.
Sometime it might be fun to write a post about the cost and challenges of hosting and maintaining the largest and most visited site of its type on the internet. As we’ve mentioned, while it’s true that Ancestry owns Find a Grave, we are an independent group and business unit and we do all we can to support our own operations. Millions of people use Find a Grave each month and a very small percentage of those contribute to the site. Site Sponsorship is another way for people who appreciate the site to support what we are doing. If you choose to contribute in a different way, Thank You!
You are certainly welcome “to write a post about the cost and challenges of hosting and maintaining the largest and most visited site of its type on the internet.” Make sure that you also point out that the millions of memorials and millions and millions of photographs were all donated to the site without any cost to you by the volunteers.
Thanks Jim. We do appreciate all the contributions you and the rest of the community have made and that is certainly something we’d want to emphasize in any discussion of the challenges or costs of maintaining the site.
The ads don’t bother me anymore. They used to in the beginning. I just want to know where there is a genealogy site that I can add all of the things to a memorial about the person – obituary (I usually type in the bio section), and other pertinent information of the person including the death certificate so that when a relative down the line goes to that website, they can find all of the info they want without having to travel to out of state libraries or pay newspapers.com for obits, etc. like I had to do when I started doing family genealogy. There are times when a doctor wants to know about family health problems that may have come down in your line – and if you quick access to a family death certificate – you can provide the information.
I would pay money for a feature that would let me lock a memorial, so that the ID could not be used in a relationship on any other memorial. I have a common last name, so people often link my ancestors to people who are not in my family tree, but have the same last name. It is always a pain to get it fixed.
I already paid to sponsor several of my families pages. That was supposed to be a one time fee. What happens to those sponsorships?
Thanks for the question and one that others have asked as well. Sponsoring a memorial removes ads from the memorial for everyone and it lasts forever. It is the same as it has been in the past. Site Sponsorship is different in that it removes third party ads from the whole site, just for you, for 6 months or a year and gives you other benefits listed in the blogpost above. They are different options.
It used to be a one time fee of $10.00 to sponsor a memorial and you could add 10 more photos. Now it’s $50.00 a year and you can only add 2. That’s a heck of a jump. I can see an increase but who wants an annual charge for each memorial?
So… here’s a question. Once your subscription runs out what happens to the extra pictures added?
Site Sponsorship is different in that it removes all third-party ads for you from the site for the duration of your sponsorship. Sponsoring a memorial is ten dollars and removes the ads from the memorial for everyone permanently. The additional photos will remain on the memorials if you are no longer a Site Sponsor. You can learn more about the other benefits of Site Sponsorship and the differences between Site Sponsorship and Sponsoring a memorial in our support article.
Simply being a contributor should be enough to do everything you offer with this promotion. There are competent ad blockers that remove the ads for free. The rest of it is just trying to justify the money grab from those that contribute to the site that makes it what it is. Without the contributors it would never have become such a valulable resource.
I really appreciate Find a Grave and the people who have assisted me. $25.00/6 mo seems reasonable for all the information and the ease of using your site. Thanks for all you do
You nailed it Mark ~ so true!
Oh my, when I have sponsored sites I have added, I only had to pay around 10.00 and that was a one time fee. My husband and I are on a very fixed income, there is no way I can afford these new fees, this makes me very sad.
Sorry for any confusion. The sponsorships you have done in the past are memorial sponsorships which permanently remove ads from a specific memorial for everyone who comes to the memorial. You can still do those and they are still $10. This new Site Sponsorship is just an option for people who would like to use the site without seeing ads themselves. Site Sponsors will not see banner ads on any pages on the site. Hope that helps clear up the confusion.
Thank you for your response. It did help to clear up my confusion.
I love this site, I am not near any of the graves that I post, so this helps me to still be able to “visit” my deceased loved ones and friends and bring them flowers, it’s very comforting.
I too love this website and the way I can link families together. I have been wondering for a while now how long will it be before Ancestry does a total takeover and we have to pay an additional subscription for access to FindaGrave.
I do not see any of the ads, I have an efficient ad blocker and the Find a Grave website has not asked me to disable it.
I am not in favour of the sponsorship, I have been studiously avoiding the request in the memorials.
I can’t believe how many people are fussing about the new OPTION! I thought the original post was
very clear – stating that if you don’t want to see ads AT ALL when you visit the site, you can sponsor
the site for $50 a year. PERIOD! Nothing else is changing! What’s with all the negativity, people?
I appreciate FG very much. I have been researching my family tree for only about 10 years, and have
found FG a very helpful site. I have added some information to my ancestors’ pages, and have asked
for a couple of corrections also – one memorial had my mother-in-law’s parents wrong, including her maiden name. After a long time, it finally got corrected. (That must have been one of the managers that had 100,000 memorials to manage!)
I do have one suggestion that would help make corrections easier for many of us, though. I tried to
add her parent’s names when I made the correction to my mother-in-law’s memorial, but her mother
didn’t have a Memorial ID. I did find a number for her mother’s second husband, though, so I put in a suggestion to the memorial manager giving all of her information and explaining that there was no Memorial ID for her, but that she was the wife of Memorial ID#**********. Well, my mother-in-law’s memorial now shows her parents are both males! The manager used the second husband’s ID instead of all the information I gave in my “suggestion” about her mother! I tried to get it corrected, but it is still listed wrong after several years! My suggestion, at this point, is that somehow another
way to add people who do not yet have a Memorial ID would be very helpful!
Now that you have the option to sponsor the FG site to remove all ads from all pages versus the previously available option to sponsor individual memorials to remove ads from specific memorials for all viewers maybe it’s time to apply the FG Site sponsorship to all volunteers who manage and/or upload graves for other users, for free. Their contributions are valuable, and appreciated. Full disclosure, I do not manage graves or contribute anything outside of my ancestor research.
I don’t manage thousands or even hundreds, but I have asked numerous times to have transferred to me my relatives. I never heard a word from anyone. Some of my family edits never happen. And a person photographed the headstones of my family, and her pictures are a blur, while she says she is a photographer. Those things do not make me want to contribute money.
Oh my goodness. We’ve all used this site for free all these years. We should support it. Also more and more family members are posting genealogy info which is a real plus and time saver.
I think that the person who created the site specified that it must remain free when he sold it. The fee to remove ads is probably the strategy to get around that requirement.
If you register with the site (it’s free), you can create your own memorials and submit an edit to delete the man listed as your relative’s mother.
What about a larger amount for a permanent sponsorship, like 200 dollars one time?????
I am confused. I frequent the Findagrave site and appreciate all the volunteers do. I consider it a mostly reliable information If they sold to Ancestry, I am wondering why they need to charge because I pay over $300 a year for Ancestry membership.
Find a Grave is owned by Ancestry, but we are separate sites. Your Ancestry subscription is for access to the records and tools available at Ancestry. Ads and sponsorships on Find a Grave are intended to help cover the cost of operating the Find a Grave website.
I am not in favor of this sponsorship. For those who are commenting about “negative” posts ~ open your eyes. There is a reason for the negativity. Read through the line. It starts out as optional, until it becomes mandatory. I stated it before, Ancestry.com is in the business to make money. In my opinion, it is only a matter of time until we will be charged for using the site. We contribute our time and information. Without us, the volunteers, there would be no site.
I already have paid a few, for the memorials I manage, or went from 5.00 to now 10.00., so are my memorials I already paid for going to have ads.
As we mentioned above, the Memorial Sponsorships you have done in the past will continue to remove the ads for everyone who visits the memorials you have sponsored. Nothing about those will change. This new Site Sponsorship option would remove ads from the whole site for you when you use the site–you won’t see 3rd party ads while you use the site.
I would suggest charging a small fee for grave photos maybe $10.00 with 5 going to the person who took it and 5 to find a grave. I love the site how about setting up a donation button for the site instead of a fee to use?
Thanks for your suggestions. There is no fee to use Find a Grave. The Site Sponsorship removes ads for those who would prefer to use the site without ads, but either way, the site is free to us.
I would sponsor if I can change incorrect data on family memorials.