Million More in May RESULTS
THANK YOU for all your efforts during Million More in May! We sure hope you had as much fun taking pictures as we did watching the records pour in by the thousands!
Here are the stats from Million More in May:
376,556 total images uploaded
316,108 total records transcribed
773 cemeteries added and
2,856 new users.
While we didn’t get a million uploads in May alone, we DID break our record for the largest number of uploads in a single month! Plus, during the month of May we also hit the 4,000,000 records mark! Thanks to all your hard work and contributions, BillionGraves is growing by the minute with more than 4 million records. What an amazing milestone!
The following people are the winners of our Million More in May prize: BillionGraves T-shirts!
- Ktwinston (25,197) + SUBWAY gift card!
- Carolyn (24,477) + SUBWAY gift card!
- OurFamilyBefore (20,336) + SUBWAY gift card!
- jaitken (12,157)
- Whitejaegar (11,225)
- Paulwuzhere (9,070)
- BeNotFotgotten (6,737)
- Kiwikel (6,553)
- Marty95A (6,499)
- Jim Pack (6,399)
- zaneermine (6,280)
- Charlene (6,203)
- Magnumopus (5,415)
- BobTurner (4,836)
- englishguyinwi (4,741)
- Relevo (4,675)
- Dabriase (4,561)
- BrittayaChuckie (4,480)
- pmoreno65 (4,038)
- Bonedigger (3,988)
- edeainfj (3,667)
- Sthooper (3,627)
- Campbell2u (3,625)
- Kathy (3,537)
- Poffenbergerds (3,513)
- TamKar (3,355)
- psych.cats (3,105)
- Kjetil (2,979)
- Tombstoneguy59 (2,919)
- jorobi (2,754)
If you are one of our 30 winners, watch your email for details on how to claim your prize or email lisa@billiongraves.com for more details.
Thank you for making Million More in May a wonderfully successful month!
Million More in May Progress
As of today, here are the numbers for the results so far of Million More in May:
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158,725 images uploaded by 409 people
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152,946 records transcribed by 709 people
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296 cemeteries added with
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Over 80,000 images queue, ready to be transcribed.
We are well on our way to a million! However—as you can see—we still have quite a way to go. And that means we need YOUR help! We know a million is quite the lofty goal, but it would be a huge milestone for BillionGraves. One that YOU could say you were a part of!
So get out to your local cemetery as much as you can these last two weeks. Remember, Memorial day coming up (on May 27th) for those of you in the U.S., which is a great time to take some photos while you’re already out in the cemetery!
Let’s see if together we can accomplish something big. Like a MILLION kind of big.
March Winners!
Thank you everyone for participating in our March friendly competitions. We had 221,818 records uploaded with this month and 292,950 records transcribed! That puts this month in the top four record months of all time! We sure had fun watching the records pour in and the transcribers record them just as fast (if not faster!). We hope you had fun as well!
We also had a blast seeing our contributors in action with our Twitter/Instagram T-shirt contest. Here are the winners:
Thank you to everyone who submitted your photos, it was sure fun to see them!
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (drumroll please): the winners of this month’s March BillionGraves Madness:
Uploader Bracket:
Top Uploader (winner of a $50 Visa gift card):
Pergler: 15,364 pictures
Top Two Uploaders (winners of CleanerTec kits):
TurningLeaves: 7,600 images
denis_ashton: 7,393 images
Top Four Uploaders (winners of Capacitive gloves):
duonoaikouka: 5,954 images
David58: 4,778 images
Whitejaegar: 4,776 images
larcol: 4,715 images
Top Eight Uploaders (winners of BillionGraves T-shirts):
ryant: 4,152 images
knight1234: 4,128 images
Will: 4,030 images
hunteryeary: 3,897 images
Jim Pack: 3,761 images
LuciJoy: 3,745 images
Rlturner53: 3,497 images
cindykay1: 3,336 images
Transcriber Bracket:
Top Transcriber (winner of a $50 Visa Gift Card):
bonniecunliffe: 35,277 transcriptions
Top Two Transcribers (winners of a CleanerTec kits):
FamFinder: 31,326 transcriptions
CWiscount: 23,867 transcriptions
Top Four Transcribers (winners of Capacitive gloves):
kring1bc: 8,554 transcriptions
AcesKitten: 8,006 transcriptions
kblack: 7,683 transcriptions
Maxmo11: 7,090 transcriptions
Top Eight Transcribers (winners of BillionGraves T-shirts):
judysusa: 6,631 transcriptions
TurningLeaves: 6,237 transcriptions
janettelaurie: 5,880 transcriptions
trishkovach: 5,424 transcriptions
schua1: 4,857 transcriptions
keanderson: 4,824 transcriptions
Patty C: 4,794 transcriptions
cindykay1: 4,371 transcriptions
Congratulations everyone! Watch your email inboxes today for details on how to claim your prize!
Working Together
Since the BillionGraves Index is now available on FamilySearch.org, a large group from FamilySearch employees decided to learn more about what BillionGraves is all about. So they headed to the Murray Cemetery in Utah to give the app a try.
Some people took pictures, and some people contributed by cleaning off headstones ahead of the picture-takers. This job is an important one: taking pictures goes much more quickly if the headstones are ready with all the information visible.
Dan Shellman, one of the participants, shared a bit about the great experience he had. “The activity that we held in which we took pictures of grave stones to be uploaded to BillionGraves was a great one. As I was taking pictures, it was humbling to see the names of families and wonder at the lives they must have lead. It felt great to know that the information about these families could be used to help others better understand their family history.”
Getting a rubbing of a favorite headstone for personal records.
Transcribing records together after the trip to the cemetery.
120 different contributors—88 of them first time picture-takers—participated, and about 12,000 new images were added to the Murray Cemetery in one day.
The group even started transcribing the images together after the event.
Thanks to those who participated. Remember, getting a group together makes picture taking a faster and even more enjoyable experience. And check out the BillionGraves Index on FamilySearch.org.
Some headstones are hard to reach, but with a little effort, you can still capture them.
BillionGraves: In a State of Growth
BillionGraves gained a lot of momentum in May, and we are thrilled with the growth we’re experiencing. Let’s keep up the momentum and celebrate!
For the month of June, the Leaderboard will show which region around the world is gathering the most new uploads. Regions are broken down into US states, Canadian provinces, and countries. Check up on your state, province, or country regularly this month to make sure it is doing its part. You should also check up on regions you want to collect research from—are people contributing in that part of the world?
When you look at the Leaderboard this month, you’ll see a beautiful map of both the United States and the whole world. The more green a region is, the higher its ranking.
Below the map is a breakdown of the top 25 regions for the month. You’ll see a number to the right of the region showing the number of uploads in the last 5 days. With this number, you can tell if your region is still working hard to maintain its spot on the Leaderboard!
At the time I wrote this post, Pennsylvania was in the lead, with Utah and Georgia close behind. And two countries made the list—The Netherlands and the UK!
Don’t worry, the regular user-based Leaderboard can be found just below the region-based one, so you can still track your own progress against other BillionGravers.
Are you in a State (or province, or country) of Growth this month?