Find A Grave

Here I am, your friendly neighborhood librarian blogging directly from the perch to all of you reading my blog. :-)  From time to time, I'll bring some attention to particular resources of information that may be interesting or useful in some way.

On that note, today I'm going to bring attention to a website some may find morbid but I find simply fascinating.  For over 10 years I've been visiting Find A Grave, which has information on deceased personalities from the past and present.  The information provided includes a brief biography of the person, dates and places of birth and death, and a grave site photo.

Some of the grave photos are rather interesting and intriguing.  Oscar Wilde's tomb in the famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris is smothered in lipstick from people who have kissed his grave.  Why?  It's a mystery.  Unsanitary, yes, but a mystery.  For Vladimir Lenin's page, there used to be a picture not only of the outside of the tomb in Red Square, but also one of Lenin's preserved body inside the tomb (we can assume the picture was removed due to the disturbing factor).  Weird, but in a strangely fascinating way.

Then there are the amusing epitaphs on some tombstones.  "I told you I was sick."  "I'd rather be in Acapulco."  "Lover of little ugly dogs."  "He died because of his wife."  One epitaph on the tombstone of a dentist reads, "Filling my last cavity."  Then there's the one I can't include here because the four words describing the deceased form an acrostic spelling a four-letter word.  Well, you have to admit some people have a good sense of humor about the beyond.

If you want to do more than just read about the deceased and see photos of their graves, you can leave "virtual flowers" on their pages.  Some pages, understandably, have the virtual flowers feature turned off because some people were leaving more than just flowers.  We can only surmise what some people wrote to go with their virtual flowers on the pages of Ferdinand Marcos or Osama Bin Laden.

The search features on the website are well ordered, and I recommend Find A Grave for your personal education, amusement, or both.  Who knows?  Maybe something from the website will help you answer that final Jeopardy question.

Today's musings from the perch.