One of the greatest advantages of Internet-based genealogy resources is that they make information available to people who would normally be unable to access it due to time, distance, or money. Virtual Cemetery is one such resource — a fully searchable collection of tombstone photographs from around the world.

Now, you may ask "Why would I want to search for a tombstone photograph?" It may sound a bit morbid, but death records are one of the three cornerstones of genealogical research. Along with birth and marriage records, they are often also the records that are easiest to obtain for documentation of your family.

One of the best ways to find death information on an ancestor is to look at his or her gravestone. It will usually provide basic data such as birth and death date, but there may also be a personal inscription that gives you insight into his or her personality. Very often, you will find ancestors buried with other members of their birth family or with a spouse, and you may be able to fill in some missing information this way.

The Virtual Cemetery is part of the Community area on Genealogy.com — to get to it, just click on the Community icon from the home page, and then on Virtual Cemetery in the navigation bar on the left. Let's start by doing a search. To begin, you click the Search for a Tombstone link on the welcome page.