illinoisgravestones.org

The Illinois Gravestone Photo Project (illinoisgravestones.org) covers Illinois cemeteries through a volunteer-contributed photo archive, organized so you can browse by cemetery, search by name, or look up surnames. Coverage is not uniform across the state: some counties have tens of thousands of approved photos, while others have few or none. The site reported 105,145 approved photos in total, with 0 pending, as of its last site statistics update. If a cemetery you need isn't represented, the practical next step is to check whether a volunteer has taken on that county, or to contribute photos yourself.

How Coverage Is Organized

The site structures its collection around three entry points, all reachable from the main navigation:

• Search Gravestones — look up a stone by name or location.
• Browse Cemeteries — explore the collection cemetery by cemetery.
• Surnames — browse by family name.

Because the archive is built from submitted photos rather than a complete statewide cemetery index, "coverage" means "cemeteries where someone has uploaded and had a photo approved." A cemetery with no submissions simply won't appear with photos, even if it exists.

Counties With the Most Photos

The site publishes a ranking of top counties measured by approved photos all-time. These figures show where volunteer activity has been concentrated:

Two things stand out. First, the top counties are heavily weighted toward northeastern Illinois (Cook, DuPage, Will), which is also the most populous part of the state. Second, the drop-off after the top few counties is steep, so a county not on this list may still have photos — just far fewer.

Total Volume and How Current the Data Is

The site's statistics page reports:

• 105,145 approved photos
• 0 pending
• 105,145 total
• Last updated: 9/23/2026, 3:03am

The "approved" versus "pending" split matters if you submit: a photo doesn't appear in search or cemetery browsing until it has been reviewed and approved. A pending count of 0 at the time of the snapshot means the review queue was empty then — it does not guarantee instant approval at any other moment.

What to Do When a Cemetery Isn't Covered

If your target cemetery or county has no photos, the site itself points to two paths:

1. Volunteer. The project states it is "currently seeking volunteers to help take and upload photos for many counties." Its Resources section includes "How Can I Volunteer?" and a Frequently Asked Questions page.
2. Submit a photo. The navigation includes a "Submit a Photo" link, and the homepage invites visitors to "Help Preserve History" by clicking through to submit.

The stated mission is the reason this matters: as decades pass, inscriptions become harder or impossible to read, so archiving images preserves records that may otherwise be lost. That also means coverage grows only as fast as volunteers add to it.

Deciding Whether to Use the Site

• Use it first if your research centers on Cook, DuPage, Will, Tazewell, Rock Island, or Hancock counties, where the archive is densest.
• Search by name and surname anyway if your county isn't in the top ten — small collections still exist, and a single stone may be all you need.
• Plan to contribute if you have photos of stones in an under-covered county; that is the mechanism by which the map fills in.
• Treat the totals as a snapshot, not a live guarantee — the statistics carry a specific "last updated" timestamp.

For anything beyond browsing and searching, start with the site's own FAQ and volunteer information rather than assuming a cemetery is absent from the project entirely.

The Illinois Gravestone Photo Project (illinoisgravestones.org) lets you search for gravestone and tombstone photos by name or location, or browse by cemetery and surname. Use the name or location search when you already have a specific ancestor or place in mind; use the cemetery or surname browse when you want to see what's available for an area or family line. All searching is free and no account is mentioned as required.

Starting a Search by Name or Location

1. Go to illinoisgravestones.org and select Search Gravestones from the main navigation.
2. Enter the name of the person you're looking for, or a location, into the search.
3. Review the results, which point you to gravestone records and photos matching your entry.

The site's stated purpose is to archive digital images of gravestones so inscriptions that are fading or becoming unreadable are preserved. That means a successful search gives you a photo of the stone itself, not just a text transcript.

Browsing by Cemetery or Surname

If a direct search comes up empty, or you don't know exactly where someone is buried, two browse paths cover the same collection from a different angle:

• Cemeteries — explore the collection by browsing through cemeteries. This is the better route when you know the town or burial ground but not the exact spelling of a name.
• Surnames — browse by family name to see which gravestones in the archive carry that surname.

These are alternative entry points to the same photo archive, so a name that doesn't surface in one view may still appear in another.

What the Collection Covers

The archive is organized by Illinois county, and coverage is uneven. Based on approved photos all-time, the largest county collections are:

The site reports 105,145 approved photos and 105,145 total, with 0 pending at the time of the last update (9/23/2026). If your ancestor's county isn't well represented above, expect thinner results — the project is volunteer-driven and is actively seeking volunteers to take and upload photos for many counties.

If Your Search Returns Nothing

A missing result usually means no photo has been submitted for that stone yet, not that the burial doesn't exist. Options:

• Try alternate spellings, maiden names, or just the surname through the Surnames browse.
• Check the Cemeteries browse for the burial ground directly.
• Read the Frequently Asked Questions and How Can I Volunteer? resources — if you can photograph stones in an under-covered county, you can contribute them yourself via Submit a Photo.

Related Pages on the Site

• Home — main entry point
• Search Gravestones — name and location search
• Submit a Photo — contribute images
• Cemeteries — browse by burial ground
• Surnames — browse by family name
• Resources — volunteer information and FAQ

You can submit a gravestone photo through the "Submit a Photo" link on illinoisgravestones.org. The site is a volunteer-run archive that captures digital images of gravestones in Illinois cemeteries, and every submission goes through an approval step before it appears publicly. If you have photographed a headstone, tombstone, or memorial marker in Illinois and want it preserved for genealogy researchers, the process is straightforward — but there are a few conditions worth knowing before you start.

Before You Submit

The project's stated mission is to archive gravestone images before inscriptions become unreadable as decades pass. That mission shapes what makes a useful submission:

• The stone should be in Illinois. This is the Illinois Gravestone Photo Project; other states have their own independently managed GPP sites.
• The photo should show the inscription clearly. The point is to preserve what the stone says, so a legible image matters more than an artistic one.
• You should be willing to have it reviewed. Submissions are not published instantly — they enter an approval queue.

The site's own statistics show 105,145 approved photos and 0 pending at the time of the last update (9/23/2026), which tells you the queue is actively cleared rather than left to pile up.

Step-by-Step: Submitting a Photo

1. Go to the submission entry point

On the homepage, the navigation includes Home, Search Gravestones, Submit a Photo, Cemeteries, Surnames, Resources. The "Submit a Photo" link is the entry point for contributions. The homepage also carries a direct call to action: "Help Preserve History — Click here to submit a photo."

2. Provide the photo and its identifying details

To be useful in a searchable archive, a photo needs to be tied to a person and a place. Expect to supply the name on the stone and the cemetery location, since the site's search works "by name or location" and its browse options are organized by Cemeteries and Surnames. Matching your submission to an existing cemetery and surname structure is what makes it findable later.

3. Submit and wait for approval

After you submit, the photo is reviewed. Only approved photos are counted and displayed — the site tracks "Approved" and "Pending" separately, and the public total reflects approved images only. So a newly submitted photo will not appear in search results immediately.

4. Verify it went live

Once approved, your photo should be findable through the same search other researchers use — by the name on the stone or by the cemetery. If you want to confirm, search for the surname or cemetery and check whether your image appears.

What to Check If Your Submission Doesn't Show Up

The Resources section lists How Can I Volunteer? and Frequently Asked Questions, plus a "View All Resources" link. These are the site's own guidance pages and are the right place to check formatting or coverage expectations before submitting a large batch.

Volunteering vs. One-Off Submissions

Submitting a single photo and volunteering are related but different. The project states it is "currently seeking volunteers to help take and upload photos for many counties," and points interested people to its FAQ and volunteer information articles. If you live near or travel through a county with thin coverage, volunteering to photograph a whole cemetery fills more gaps than a one-off upload.

Coverage is uneven across the state. The top counties by approved photos all-time are:

If your photos are from a county far down this list — or not on it — your contribution adds proportionally more to the archive.

Why It Matters

Gravestone inscriptions fade, chip, and become unreadable over time. Archiving a clear digital image now means a researcher decades from now can still read a name, a date, or an epitaph that the physical stone may no longer show. That is the whole premise of the project, and it is why the approval step exists: the archive is meant to be a reliable record, not an unfiltered photo dump.

For questions about how the project operates, its Frequently Asked Questions and How Can I Volunteer? pages under Resources are the authoritative source. The site also provides Donate, Contact Us, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Site Map links in its footer if you need to reach the operators directly.

The Illinois Gravestone Photo Project (illinoisgravestones.org) is actively seeking volunteers to take and upload gravestone photos for many Illinois counties. To get started, go to the site's Resources section and read the "How Can I Volunteer?" and "Frequently Asked Questions" articles — those pages explain the volunteer role and how to participate. The project's stated mission is to capture digital images of gravestones before inscriptions become unreadable, and volunteers are the primary way that work gets done.

What Volunteering Involves

Based on the project's own description, the volunteer role is a part-time activity built around two tasks:

• Taking photos of gravestones in Illinois cemeteries
• Uploading those photos to the project so they can be archived and made searchable

The site describes this as a "rewarding part-time activity" and notes it is recruiting for many counties, so you are not limited to one specific area. The project frames the work as preserving history: as decades pass, many stones become harder — or impossible — to read, and archiving images helps save those records for researchers.

How to Get Started

1. Read the volunteer information. From the site navigation, open the Resources section and select "How Can I Volunteer?" This is the project's own guidance for prospective volunteers.
2. Check the FAQ. The "Frequently Asked Questions" article in the same Resources section covers common questions about participating.
3. Identify where photos are needed. The project lists top counties by approved photo count, which gives a sense of where coverage is already concentrated. As of the site's last update (9/23/2026), the leading counties were Cook (17,830), DuPage (13,618), Will (9,960), Tazewell (7,222), and Rock Island (6,953) — with the site stating it is seeking volunteers for "many counties."
4. Submit your photos. The site's main navigation includes a "Submit a Photo" link, and the homepage has a "Click here to submit a photo" prompt. Use that path once you have images ready.
5. Contact the project if you have questions. A "Contact Us" link is available in the site footer for reaching the project directly.

What the Site Tells You About Scale

The project publishes site statistics that help you understand the scope of the archive you would be contributing to:

Measured by approved photos all-time, last updated 9/23/2026. These figures come directly from the site's statistics section.

Practical Notes

• The site does not publish a sign-up form, training schedule, or time commitment on the pages summarized here — the volunteer articles in Resources are the place to look for those details.
• No pricing or payment information appears on the site; nothing here indicates whether any aspect of participation involves cost, so check the volunteer and FAQ pages directly if that matters to you.
• Illinois Gravestone Photo Project is hosted by ClickStart Web Services LLC and is part of the broader GPP Projects network, with each Gravestone Photo Project website independently managed.

If your goal is simply to use the archive rather than build it, the same site offers search by name or location, browsing by cemetery, and browsing by surname. Volunteering is the path to choose when you want to contribute images rather than look them up.

The Illinois Gravestone Photo Project is a volunteer-run archive of digital photographs of gravestones in Illinois cemeteries. Its stated mission is to capture images of gravestones before weathering makes their inscriptions unreadable, and to make those images available to genealogy and history researchers. You can search the collection by name or location, browse by cemetery or surname, and submit your own photos. As of the site's last update (9/23/2026), it lists 105,145 approved photos and no pending submissions.

What the site offers

The project is organized around three main activities, each with its own entry point on the site:

• Search Gravestones — look for a gravestone by name or location.
• Submit a Photo — contribute your own images to the archive.
• Browse Cemeteries — explore the collection cemetery by cemetery.

There are also Surnames and Resources sections. Resources include "How Can I Volunteer?" and a frequently asked questions page.

Coverage and scale

The collection is unevenly distributed across Illinois. The site's own statistics list the top counties by approved photos:

These figures are measured by approved photos all-time. If the cemetery or county you need is not well represented, the site notes it is actively seeking volunteers to take and upload photos for many counties.

Who runs it and how it is funded

The project is volunteer-driven. The site describes volunteering as a "rewarding part-time activity" and points interested people to its FAQ and volunteer information articles. It also has a Donate link. The site states that all Gravestone Photo Project websites are independently managed, and that the Illinois project is hosted by ClickStart Web Services LLC. Copyright is listed as 2003–2026.

How to use it

1. Start with a search if you have a name or location. Use the Search Gravestones function to look up a gravestone by name or location.
2. Browse by cemetery if you know where the person was buried but not the exact listing, or if you want to see what exists for a given cemetery.
3. Check the surname index to see whether a family name appears in the collection.
4. Verify against the photo itself. The value of the archive is the image of the stone; treat the indexed name as a finding aid and read the inscription from the photo where legible.
5. Submit a photo if you have one that is not in the archive. The site provides a Submit a Photo path and asks contributors to help preserve history.

Practical limitations to keep in mind

• Coverage is not statewide or uniform. The top-county table shows heavy concentration in a few counties and much thinner representation elsewhere. A negative search result does not mean no gravestone exists — only that no photo is archived.
• The archive is photo-based, not a full burial index. The project's purpose is capturing digital images of gravestones and their inscriptions, not transcribing every cemetery's burial records.
• Volunteer capacity shapes growth. New photos depend on people willing to photograph and upload them, so counties with no active volunteer may stay empty for a long time.
• The site does not state a price or a login requirement for searching. Nothing in the available information supports assuming paid access or an account requirement, so check the site directly if access terms matter to you.

Where it fits in genealogy research

Use this project as an image source alongside, not instead of, cemetery records, death certificates, and other indexes. Its specific strength is preserving inscriptions that are fading: as the site puts it, "as decades pass, many stones are becoming harder, if not impossible, to read the inscriptions they originally bore." A photograph taken today may be the only readable record of a stone in another twenty years. If you photograph stones yourself, submitting them to the project is one way to make that record permanent and searchable for other researchers.