FamilySearch to link to BillionGraves images, indexed information.

[James W Anderson]

Mentioned this site, BillionGraves, a couple months ago. There's
still nothing yet from Portugal, Brazil, or other Portuguese-speaking
or related areas, but there could be if we wanted there to be.

And today FamilySearch.org said that they will include in their
search, the indexed records of headstones others with smartphones with
the iOS or Android app BillionGraves has to take the photos and tag
them with the GPS data so you can find exactly where they are at the
cemetery they are in.

Here's the story from the FamilySearch blog.

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/billiongraves/

Here's a blog post from BillionGraves itself describing how easy it is
to take photos and how many can be done in a rather short amount of
time.

http://blog.billiongraves.com/2012/04/million-more-in-may/

A Youtube video is on the right describing briefly how this all works.

The app, in addition to being in English, can also be configured to be
in Spanish or Portuguese if desired. All app controls and in-app
instructions are in all three languages. The app is also free.

All iPhones from the iPhone 3GS and up, including the iPone 4 and 4S,
have very good GPS in them. Most Androids have good GPS as well, and
BillionGraves does keep a list of which Androids DON'T work with their
app but also has a few workaround tips for some of those.

While having a data plan can be helpful, you don't need to have a data
plan to upload the data, you only need, after gathering some photos
from a cemetery, to get to a place with Wi-Fi, log in, and upload the
photos taken. When getting the app in the first place you only need
to be connected via Wi-Fi to get it from your smartphone's respective
app store.

One model of iPad also can be used for taking photos too.

[mnk]

This might not be that helpful for finding ancestors on the Azores,
not too many had permanent graves.
Maria Natalia

[James W Anderson]

That is true, I know of a few other notorious places where it's hard
to find anything for that matter in that way. Switzerland is the
worst I hear when it comes to that.

Because there is so little land there that can be used for cemeteries
and graveyards, they reuse gravesites after about 40 years, so you
typically won't see anything much further back than that.

But for Brazil and Portugal, it is likely you'll find almost anything
from the last 150 years or so, although the older the headstone, the
more likely there is enough wear, or the stone split (saw one on the
BillionGraves site in England where the top left corner of the
headstone simply broke off, so some of the inscription was missing),
or other damage whether it be natural or human caused.

As far as areas where there were concentrations of Portuguese
immigrants settling, Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts, and
Hawaii were places they went to, and there are some cemeteries at
least partially photographed on BillionGraves now from those areas, so
it's worth a look. There has been a lot of photography going on
lately so not all the photographed stones have been transcribed yet,
there will always be a lag that way, so if you find a cemetery has or
is being photographed, check back every so often to see if there are
any headstones or transcribed records that might match your searches.

Still nothing shot in Brazil or Portugal though.

[Mary Blake]

This information is on the Azores Gen Web Site:

"In the Azores people are buried in cemeteries, i.e, outside the church in
the early 1830's. It depends on the village. To be accurate on that I would
suggest to check each death record in that time frame and see where they
were buried: inside the church or in the cemetery. Records up to the early
1700's are richer in giving details about the graves (their location and the
owner) and causes of death, specially accidents.

Lime was used to help decomposition of the bodies, but also as a means of
disinfestation.

I think there were no coffins when they were buried inside the churches,
also graves were used almost every year. As some of you know I have done the
genealogy of 3 villages and for the 1600's I was really careful with death
records, trying to find leads on previous generations: someone that was
buried in his grandmother's grave, whose name is mentioned. In São Sebastião
the priest doesn't say how they were related, but said to whom the grave
belonged. Example: was buried in the grave of Beatriz Camela. Going through
all the records, we can find the same name, which means that the same grave
was used often. In Ribeirinha two women died and each was buried in two
graves! Also there, in times of plague, people were buried in the church
yard, because there was no room inside the church.

According to what I have found in Terceira, people only have masses for
their souls, when there is a will, whereas in Pico and Faial the priest
decides the amount of masses should be prayed, according to one's wealth.
Those who made wills, usually left one third of their properties to the
church, so they could have a certain number of masses per year "while the
world lasts" (this is the expression most people used). Marquês de Pombal
was the first that tried to abolish this, but it was the Liberal Revolution
of the 1820's and 1830's that stop this.

I think the other questions have been answered, in any case I am open to new
questions, in case I know the answers!

João Ventura
Terceira"

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