This is our first post in a series reflecting on our beginnings and the amazing difference our community has made since Find a Grave was created. It’s been over thirty years since then!
Find a Grave’s origins are surprisingly humble, rooted in the early days of the internet, a flatbed scanner, and the idea that people could work together all over the world, connecting and helping each other.
Recently, we sat down with Jim Tipton, the creator and founder of Find a Grave, in the peaceful shade of Mount Olivet Cemetery. His reflections offer a look back at how an interesting hobby of finding famous graves blossomed into a massive, altruistic community on a mission.
The Beginnings
Back in late 1995, when HTML and web pages were brand-new, Jim simply wanted to put something online because he was “kind of nerdy and into that world.” He initially launched a site with “noteworthy gravesites” written across the top, featuring a small collection of about 100 famous graves he had personally visited.
It’s difficult to remember the exact moment, but Jim suspects the name “Find a Grave” was created at 3 a.m. in his Salt Lake City basement. He remembers using Photoshop to create the iconic logo (a headstone with a question mark) to represent finding a grave. In an era before Google, for the website to be found he had to manually submit it to Netscape’s “What’s new” section. People would click on what’s new and go explore the site.
As the site gained traction through word of mouth, early members began mailing Jim physical envelopes and boxes, making up thousands of snapshots. He manually scanned every single picture on an Epson flatbed scanner, uploaded them to the site, and packaged many of them to mail back to the owners. Despite the limits of technology at the time, the passionate community continued to send in information to add to the site and every memorial, date, photo, location, or biography was the sharing of information for all.
Community and Technology
Jim mentioned living in London in college and going to Highgate Cemetery to explore and step away from the crowds – a true to life application for Jim’s description of “cemeteries as parks for introverts.” For years, Jim thought he was one of the few people who looked for cemeteries to visit when he was on vacation. When asked what surprised him most about the Find a Grave community, he said “that they exist.” Discovering that so many people shared his passion was exciting! As the community grew, they organically coined their own terminology, referring to their shared hobby of documenting cemeteries as “graving” and identifying themselves as “gravers.” Find a Grave is one of the internet’s earliest examples of what came to be known as crowdsourcing. But more importantly, through its mission and connecting people, it created a unique worldwide community and the largest collection of gravesite information, which continues to grow daily.
Just like today, community members had a strong connection to Find a Grave from the get go. Jim sent out temporary tattoos per request via mail and added a way for members to share their photos in the tattoo gallery. This member went a step further and had a permanent tattoo placed.
A charming tidbit that Jim mentioned was “the ticker.” About the year 2000, to track the influx of new data from the community, Jim built a tool for his computer that played a ticking sound every time a new memorial was added, a camera shutter for a new photo, and a pop sound for virtual flowers. Those sounds were magical, in that there were so many people contributing, connecting and collaborating through the site.
Pretty soon, digital cameras came along. Jim added online photo submissions as soon as the HTML web technology was available. Seeing that first digital photo roll in instantly was a massive turning point and he knew what a difference it was making to the community, being able to upload and see the benefits of their hard work immediately. Jim noted how thrilling this timeframe was as the site grew so much. Next was the addition of the community using smartphones and the Find a Grave app, which resulted in the site’s growth exploding. With so many members using the app, it’s easy to run into fellow gravers out in the cemetery and strike up a conversation about Find a Grave. Jim’s had these experiences too and they are some of his favorites.
Connection
Beyond being the world’s largest gravesite collection, the true heart of Find a Grave lies in connection. Jim mentioned memorable graves he’s enjoyed visiting, including presidential graves, Richard Feynman, Al Capone, and namesake graves like Nestle or Ford, where you realize a famous brand name originally belonged to the real person buried right here.
Standing at a gravesite provides a profound “book end” feeling, the realization that you are occupying the exact same location where they are buried and where everyone who loved that person once gathered for their funeral. He felt this when visiting the grave of Jane Wyman (Ronald Reagan’s first wife), knowing that old Hollywood figures and her family had once stood in that very spot to mourn.
We all know the feeling of connection when you are standing at the gravesite and also what it feels like to continue the search, knowing the burial location still needs to be found. Tanya, Jim’s wife, was a teenager when her mom died. She knew she was buried in Chicago, but didn’t know where. In 2003, Jim reached out to gravers in the Chicago area and asked for help finding her gravesite. Just two days later, member James Seidelman reached out with a strong lead. James contacted his brother John, and in no time, the gravesite was found, photographed and uploaded to her memorial. It was an emotionally charged moment, seeing her gravestone for the first time. Twenty years later, because of the kindness of community members locating her grave, they could pay their respects in person!
It was a lot of fun talking to Jim and hearing about the beginnings of the site! So fun in fact, that we couldn’t resist recreating his profile photo with his question mark headstone and headed over to Salt Lake City Cemetery. It took us a bit, but we think we found the right spot!
When Ancestry acquired Find a Grave in 2013, Jim helped with the transition and worked with teams in the San Fransisco and Lehi office. Since then, the Find a Grave team has redesigned the site and apps and added new features and options to help members better collaborate in this massive undertaking.
It’s astounding what the community has accomplished so far. But, even more astounding is knowing what a difference your work and the site’s reach is making in the lives of others. We’ll be focusing on more of those stories in upcoming posts.
A huge thank you to Jim for creating, developing, and running Find a Grave for all those years! What started with Jim posting about famous graves online, quickly evolved into a thriving altruistic community willing to help each other, volunteer to photograph and GPS graves, suggest edits, and work together towards the mission of recording and documenting gravesites everywhere. Through Find a Grave and the efforts of the Find a Grave community for over 30 years, anyone worldwide can discover more and connect. Find a Grave bridges the gap between the living and those who have passed, proving that even a project started by a self-proclaimed introvert can end up connecting the entire world.
In Jim’s words, “Grave on!”
