Tracking Down MeMorials

Celia recommends these eight websites for further research

BillionGraves

w billiongraves.com

This free website covers burial sites from around the world including many UK churchyards, and provides images of the memorials together with transcriptions.

Discovery

w discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk Many archives have copies of historic churchyard surveys. Search The National Archives’ online catalogue Discovery for such phrases as ‘memorial inscriptions’ and ‘churchyard survey’.

Find A Grave

w findagrave.com

This free website offers a database with photographs of memorial inscriptions in the UK and elsewhere.

Kent Archaeology Society Monumental Inscriptions

w tinyurl.com/kas-memorials

This is an excellent example of a local project to collect details of memorials. It began over a century ago, so many of the recorded gravestones are now illegible.

Ledgerstone Survey Of England And Wales

w lsew.org.uk

Ledgerstones are the flat stones placed over a grave inside a church but, being part of the floor, they are in danger of becoming illegible. This project is working with volunteers to record them.

National Burial Grounds Survey

w tinyurl.com/nbg-survey

This huge project to map Church of England churchyards, including memorials, is well under way. Although only two churchyards (Kirkburton and Shelley) have been put online, more are being added this year.

TheGenealogist

w thegenealogist.co.uk

This subscription company’s ‘Headstone’ collection contains both transcriptions and images of memorials taken from a large number of churchyards.

World Burial Index

w worldburialindex.com

The members of this website can access transcriptions of memorials from cemeteries and churchyards, mostly in the UK but also places that are connected to the British Empire or British diaspora. Membership costs £10 for one year.