1,000 Find a Grave Requests

A couple of years ago, I wrote about how my interest in genealogy eventually led me to Find a Grave. I started fulfilling photo requests, which involves visiting cemeteries and taking pictures of gravestones for people who aren't able to visit the graves of loved ones themselves. What started as another part of my genealogy hobby has now turned into something much bigger.

I recently fulfilled my 1,000th Find a Grave photo request. When I first started doing this, I described it as "Word Finder combined with exercise," and I still think that's the best way to describe it. Sometimes I find a grave almost immediately, while other times I can walk around for quite a while trying to find the request.

Along the way I have incorporated Find A Grave into vacations and I have been able to fulfill requests in Los Angeles, California, Austin, Texas, Alassio, Italy, Menton, France, and Dublin, Ireland.

My favorite part is knowing that I'm helping someone find a piece of their family history. A cemetery that's only a short drive for me might be hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the person who requested the photo. I've also gotten to explore places I probably never would have visited otherwise.

I definitely didn't start doing this expecting to reach 1,000 requests, which makes reaching this milestone even more exciting. Between building my own family tree and helping other people with theirs, genealogy has taken me in directions I never expected. Now I'm curious to see how high that number gets.