It’s always interesting to see your progress, regardless of the task at hand. So we’re posting a progress report for BillionGraves. Here are our numbers after the first dozen days of work:

Photos: 8084+ (variation allowed for the time it took me to write this)
Records: 11108+ (the number keeps changing each time I check it)
Photos awaiting transcription: 500–600 (this number also keeps changing)

There are more records than photos because a record refers to one individual’s information. So a couple that is buried under the same monument produces two records, one for each individual. Some of these individuals, like Carl J. Anderson (Provo City Cemetery, Utah, U.S.A.), I wasn’t able to find on the major grave registration sites. Now they’re available for current and future descendants. While these numbers are still relatively small, they represent a strong 12-days introduction.

We’re not sure how many cemeteries have been added to the database since the launch because once we approve an added cemetery, it becomes identical to the cemeteries we originally had on file. I can, however, tell you about the cemeteries we have in the queue for approval. There are currently 16 of them.

  • 13 are in the United States, and they come from 8 different states.
  • 1 is in Ontario, Canada.
  • 1 is in United Kingdom, England specifically.
  • 1 is in Croatia.
(Side note: The approval process goes much faster if cemeteries are added with phones that are currently in the cemetery.)
Together, everyone using BillionGraves has, on average, made the headstones of 925 individuals available to descendants worldwide each day the site has been up and running. I wish I could thank you all individually for the contributions you’ve already made, both in photos and in transcriptions, but for now a sweeping “Thank you all” will have to do. We’re hopeful that more and more people will find and contribute to BillionGraves, and the numbers can only go up.