Relatives Near Me & Cemeteries

LegacyUser

Joseph Lorenzo La Fazia said: Expand the "Find relatives near me" feature of FamilySearch to search the indexed headstones on FindAGrave and BillionGraves when you are physically in a cemetery.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: The Find Relatives Near Me" is a feature for use in a setting where a lot of people are participating (like a Roots Tech session).

Initially, the app was limited to 100 feet. It is still limited in range since expanding the range can easily violate privacy laws or laws regulating monitoring others.

As far as using it for cemeteries, no, that is not its purpose. Read the blog article at https://www.thefhguide.com/blog/hello.... Note that both you and those around you must be using the App.

It is a fun app.

For cemeteries, log into Find a Grave (it is a free site) and use its search utilities. I'm not sure if Billion Graves is free or not, but it also has search facilities.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I understand that the range is still limited to 100 feet. Anything more and a user could easily be violating local laws.

LegacyUser

Joseph Lorenzo La Fazia said: Why not develop a new tool that works similar to "Find Relatives Near Me"? It could be called "Find Relatives Near Me-Cemeteries," is tied to FamilySearch accounts, and connected to the FindAGrave and BillionGraves databases. For example, it's Memorial Day and your standing in a cemetery visiting the gravesite of an ancestor. You begin to wonder if there are any other relatives buried in that same cemetery. You open the FS app and activate the tool "Find Relatives Near Me-Cemeteries" and a list is populated showing possible ancestors (based of a surname search in your FS tree) that are buried in that cemetery.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Since you have to access the internet to use FamilySearch, you can do the same thing with Find a Grave. It will be current while FamilySearch does not update its indexes of the site every time there is a new Find a Grave entry.