BillionGraves is thrilled to announce our latest innovation: Cemetery Intelligence. This powerful AI-driven tool will transform the way you explore cemeteries and uncover family history, making it easier than ever to locate your ancestors’ gravestones. It is one of the most significant launches in BillionGraves’ history.
What is Cemetery Intelligence?
What exactly is “Cemetery Intelligence” (CI)? Think “Artificial Intelligence” (AI), but trained specifically on information about cemeteries and death-related information. That’s it in a nutshell.
A more in-depth explanation: “Cemetery Intelligence” or “CI” is BillionGraves’ groundbreaking new AI-powered genealogy toolset, built specifically to supercharge cemetery research and bring your ancestors’ stories to life.
Trained on 100’s of millions of GPS-tagged gravestone photographs, inscriptions, obituaries, symbols, cemetery records, death records, and related historical documents in the BillionGraves database, it acts as your intelligent genealogy partner. It uses advanced AI to go far beyond basic transcription by analyzing the extracted information to connect the dots across records, uncover meaningful patterns, explore complex relationships, and deliver the insights that actually matter to researchers.
It surfaces hidden relationships, reveals nearby family graves you might never have spotted, suggests additional sources that fill in the gaps, and even crafts rich, contextual life stories that place your ancestors in their historical world, complete with migrations, military service, occupations, and personal details that traditional searches often miss.
Whether you’re standing in a cemetery with your phone or researching from home, Cemetery Intelligence turns raw tombstone data into powerful family history discoveries, saving you time while revealing the deeper connections and stories that make genealogy truly rewarding.
It’s family history research, supercharged.
Key Aspects of Cemetery Intelligence
You’re still with me? Great. I’m going to make this as painless as possible. (Click on the links if you want even more details.)
Definition of Cemetery Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence involves machines acting or thinking like humans, operating under various circumstances without constant human oversight. Cemetery Intelligence works the same way, but it focuses on gravestones and other death-related resources, such as death certificates, obituaries, and funeral programs.
How Cemetery Intelligence Works: Instead of being explicitly programmed for every action, Cemetery Intelligence systems use data and algorithms (a set of finite, well-defined steps or instructions designed to solve a problem) to learn patterns and make predictions or decisions.
3 Artificial Intelligence/Cemetery Intelligence Techniques:
There are 3 ways computers can be trained to analyze and predict data: machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing.
- Machine Learning – a set of methods that enable a computer to make decisions or draw conclusions without humans guiding it (algorithms that learn from data)
- Deep Learning – teaching computers to find patterns from thousands of examples, which is something that humans can do naturally (neural networks that mimic the brain)
- Natural Language Processing – enables computers to interpret and generate human language so that you can understand it (language understanding)
Cemetery Intelligence uses all of these techniques to analyze millions of GPS-tagged photos, transcriptions, and cemetery maps. For family history researchers, it’s a game-changer.
Trust is the Cornerstone
If you used artificial intelligence in the past, you probably know that it gave reliable answers when the assessment was easy, but it “hallucinated lies” when the analysis was challenging. Thankfully, AI is more reliable now.
BillionGraves’ Cemetery Intelligence uses a new system to block the “hallucinations”. It is called “Retrieval Augmented Generation” (RAG).
RAG improves Natural Language Processing accuracy and relevance by fetching data from external, trusted sources (such as document databases, intranets, or web searches) before generating an answer. It bridges the gap between training data and real-time information, reducing hallucinations by grounding answers in retrieved context.
Think of it this way: earlier AI models used millions of pieces of data (for example, millions of photos of gravestones) to predict information about a new photo of a gravestone. Now, there is a powerful search tool added on top of this to bring in information from other sources, making predictions more trustworthy.
AI still isn’t perfect, but the bottom line is, Cemetery Intelligence is likely to give you accurate information. Boom.
How to Use Cemetery Intelligence to Grow Your Family Tree
Here are 5 easy steps to get you started:
- Log in to your BillionGraves account.
- Navigate to a research page.
- Enter the name of one of your ancestors.
- Select the “Cemetery Intelligence” icon.
- Follow the prompts and watch the magic happen!
Research a Specific Person
After you log in, select the “Research” tab at the top of your dashboard page:
This will open a dropdown menu. Select “Person Search”:
This will open the “Search Records” form.
Add names, dates, locations, . . . whatever you already know!
Then click the button labeled “Search.”
The Cemetery Intelligence sidebar will appear. Select the button labeled “Analyze Headstone”.
Remember that magic that I mentioned? Here it goes. Imagine the first star in a night sky starting to twinkle, then a few more appear, and before long, the night sky is lit up like fireworks. Cemetery Intelligence is a family history buff’s “starry-night-sky-turned-fireworks” kind of magic.
In just moments, AI-Powered Cemetery Intelligence is searching hundreds of millions of records, such as:
- headstone collections
- burial records
- obituaries
- death certificates
- marriage and divorce records
- birth information
- archives
- land records
- military records
- historical societies
- genealogical societies
- family trees
- census records
- newspapers
- court and probate records
- occupational information
- immigration and naturalization records
AI-powered Cemetery Intelligence will help you get instant insights, discover connections, and uncover stories about your ancestors.
Cemetery Intelligence’s Gift to You
Cemetery Intelligence takes all this information and delivers it to you like a beautifully wrapped present. Here are some of the “gifts” you’ll receive:
- Headstone analysis
- Religious affiliation (based on gravestone symbols)
- Information about parents, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives
- Military rank, wars, and dates of service
- A biographical sketch of your ancestor’s life with historical information included
- Nearby graves for other family members
- A list of genealogical societies and historical societies located near the events in your ancestor’s life
- Additional records, outside of BillionGraves, including your ancestor’s identification number on FamilySearch
- “Memories”: a list of stories and information about your ancestor
Analyze Headstone Information
Extract and analyze information from headstone images. Get details about dates, inscriptions, and other important information to enhance your family history research.
Find Nearby Family Graves
Discover relatives buried in the same cemetery. AI helps identify potential family connections based on surnames, dates, and proximity.
Discover Relationships
Uncover family relationships and connections. AI analyzes records to help you understand how people in the cemetery might be related.
Get the Life Story
Cemetery Intelligence will analyze available records, dates, and locations to create a comprehensive life story about your ancestor’s life.
Find Other Research Sources
Get AI-powered suggestions for additional research sources, including census records, military records, and historical documents.
Memories
When you connect your FamilySearch tree, we can search for and pull in more memories, or you can add them manually.
Other Sources
Cemetery Intelligence will help you find additional sources that may help you find more information about your ancestor.
A Real-Life Example
Cemetery Intelligence Found My Uncle
I opened the research page and entered the name of Robert W. Cheney, my mother’s brother. BillionGraves’ Cemetery Intelligence brought me a photograph of his graveside in Mason, Michigan. This was a great start, but there was so much more.
Next, I clicked on the Cemetery Intelligence icon in the corner of the image:
From there, I was guided by prompts that helped me find more information in the following 10 ways:
#1 Headstone Analysis and Key Extractions — with Cemetery Intelligence
My uncle’s gravestones were described (flat, dark granite markers). The name, location, birth/death dates, and his military rank were given.
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? “Natural Learning Processing” was used to “read” the information on the gravestone image and convert it into text.
#2 Military Service Information — with Cemetery Intelligence
Next, Cemetery Intelligence informed me that “Robert enlisted in the U.S. Navy around September 1960 at the age of 17 and served for approximately 2 to 3 years as a Postal Clerk Petty Officer 3rd Class in the US Naval Reserves. He was assigned to the USS Arcadia (an attack cargo ship or destroyer). Notably, he was honored as “Sailor of the Year” aboard the USS Arcadia on 25 July 1963, just months before his death.”
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? It pulled some information from the headstone itself and then gathered additional data from newspaper articles, vital records, military records, and more.
#3 Biographical Details — with Cemetery Intelligence
Cemetery Intelligence then provided me with a biographical sketch of my uncle. It said, “Robert W. Cheney was born on 14 September 1943 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan, and died just 1 week after his 20th birthday on 21 September 1963 in Ann Arbor at the Veterans Administration Hospital. He succumbed to cancer after a brief illness. At the time of his death, he was a resident of Mason, Ingham County, Michigan.”
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? It retrieved information from obituaries, funeral programs, and more.
#4 More Family Connections — with Cemetery Intelligence
Cemetery Intelligence then told me the names of my uncle’s parents, along with their birth and death dates, locations, and marriage information.
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? BillionGraves cemetery information is linked to the FamilySearch Family Tree. Cemetery Intelligence gathered the information from that tree and also from other online sources.
#5 Burial and Historical Context — with Cemetery Intelligence
Cemetery Intelligence then said, “Robert was buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery, Mason, Ingham County, Michigan, a site reflecting his family’s deep roots in the area (his father was born there; parents were married there). In 1963, Michigan’s Ingham County was rural agricultural, with Mason as a small town near Lansing.
“Robert’s service during the early Vietnam era buildup highlights naval contributions from Midwestern families, though his death was due to illness rather than combat.
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? AI-powered Cemetery Intelligence was used to gather social context from historical articles and weave it into the story of my uncle’s life.
#6 Locating Nearby Graves — with Cemetery Intelligence
Cemetery Intelligence then helped me find the nearby graves of additional family members close to the area where my uncle was buried. It showed them to me on a map of the cemetery, using GPS coordinates. It even told me how many feet they were from my uncle’s grave.
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? Cemetery Intelligence and BillionGraves’ unique GPS-linked data worked together to find gravestones with the same last name as my uncle. It even finds relatives with different last names (such as married daughters, grandchildren, cousins, etc.) that are buried nearby.
#7 Discovering Related Records — with Cemetery Intelligence
Wa-la! Cemetery Intelligence found 22 people who are related to my uncle. Some are buried at the same cemetery where he is buried. What a family history treasure!
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? It analyzes GPS-linked images taken with the BillionGraves app, names linked from the FamilySearch Family Tree, and locations to predict likely family relationships.
#8 Finding Genealogical Societies — with Cemetery Intelligence
Oh, here’s an exciting new feature on BillionGraves! Cemetery Intelligence has discovered 20 genealogical/historical societies near the area where my uncle lived. BillionGraves provides their contact information. I can then contact these societies to see if they have additional information about my uncle, his family, or our common ancestors. This can be a priceless tool for finding information that genealogical societies have not digitized yet.
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? BillionGraves has an ongoing project to train Cemetery Intelligence to link genealogical/historical societies with the locations of family members’ life events.
#9 View on FamilySearch — with Cemetery Intelligence
BillionGraves’ Cemetery Intelligence then told me the identifying code (a series of letters and numbers) used for my uncle on the FamilySearch Family Tree. From there, I can see additional sources that were used to gather his family history information.
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? It matches information on the BillionGraves website with information on the FamilySearch Family Tree.
#10 Memories — with Cemetery Intelligence
Cemetery Intelligence even provided me with memories about my uncle. There is a full life story with historical context and links to photos on FamilySearch Memories.
- How did Cemetery Intelligence know all this? It gathered information from newspaper articles, other family history websites, historical documents, and family-submitted information.
My Uncle’s Lifestory as Written by Cemetery Intelligence
With just a click of a button, Cemetery Intelligence provided me with a story about my uncle’s life. It even has numbered links to the sources of information. Now that’s impressive! When I clicked on the blue-numbered links below, I learned things about my uncle and our common ancestors that I never knew before.
Cemetery Intelligence created a story about my uncle that is not only accurate, but it’s also touching and beautiful. Here it is:
“Robert W. Cheney was born on September 14, 1943, in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan, during the final months of World War II, into a family rooted in the rural communities of Ingham County.[1][2] His parents, Paul Brewster Cheney (1912–2009) and Marguerite Alice Gilbert (1911–2004), had married in Mason in 1934; Paul worked in various local roles over the years, including managing a dairy farm in the 1930s, serving as a school bus business manager in the 1960s, and later as an officer at Michigan National Bank in Detroit.[2][3][4] The family lived near Mason, a small farming town in south-central Michigan, amid the post-war economic boom of the 1950s, when the state thrived on agriculture, manufacturing, and proximity to Lansing’s government jobs and the auto industry in nearby Detroit.[1]
As a baby boomer child of the 1940s and ’50s, Robert’s early life would have reflected the optimism of America’s Cold War prosperity: television entering homes, rock ‘n’ roll emerging, and community life centered on schools, churches, and family farms like those his grandparents (Willis L. Cheney and Myra L. Wood) operated in the area. He likely attended local schools in Mason, enjoying typical teen pursuits—sports, cars, drive-ins—in a wholesome Midwestern setting before turning 17.
In September 1960, at age 17, Robert enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as a Postal Clerk Petty Officer 3rd Class (PC3) aboard the USS Arcadia (AGS-3), a survey and repair ship that operated primarily in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during the early 1960s.[1][5] His two years of service (1961–1963) coincided with escalating Cold War tensions, including the Berlin Crisis and Cuban Missile Crisis, though the Arcadia’s missions focused on hydrographic surveys and support rather than combat. Robert excelled, earning “Sailor of the Year” honors aboard ship on July 25, 1963—a proud moment just weeks before tragedy struck.[5][6]
Tragically short-lived, Robert was diagnosed with cancer shortly after his award and died on September 21, 1963, at age 20, in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Ann Arbor.[5][1] His obituary in the Lansing State Journal noted his Navy service and home in Mason. Fellow sailors on the USS Arcadia held a memorial service in his honor.[5][7] He was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, Mason, alongside his parents (who died decades later).[1]
Robert’s life embodied youthful patriotism and promise cut short by illness amid the transformative early 1960s—Kennedy’s New Frontier, civil rights struggles, and pre-Vietnam military service—leaving a legacy of service in a tight-knit Michigan family.[5]“
Ready to Try it Yourself?
You can try out BillionGraves’ Cemetery Intelligence yourself today! Choose a name from your family tree and enter it on the research page at BillionGraves.com. Prepare to be amazed at what you will discover! Then choose another name and do it again!
Add your own family obituaries, death certificates, and funeral programs
I’ve saved the best news for last! You can now add your own family’s obituaries, death certificates, and funeral programs to the BillionGraves database. You can transcribe them yourself, or we will transcribe them for you.
- Log in to your BillionGraves account and go to the upload section on the Dashboard.
- Choose the record type (obituary, death certificate, funeral program, or headstone image).
- Upload your files
- — single or batch upload.
- Cemetery Intelligence processes them automatically, extracting and structuring the information. You can also choose to manually transcribe them yourself as well.
- Review the results, make any adjustments if needed, and link them to existing records to build richer connections.
BillionGraves Cemetery Intelligence will automatically transcribe your obituaries, death certificates, and funeral programs. Easy-peasy! As you add your information, and I add mine, we’ll all find more of our relatives.
Add Gravestone Photos that were Taken Without the BillionGraves app
BillionGraves volunteers have been asking for this feature for a long time: you can now upload gravestone images that were taken without the BillionGraves app, and they will be added to the transcription queue. In other words, you won’t need to transcribe them yourself!
Maybe you have photos on your computer or phone that were taken years ago with your phone camera. Maybe they were taken while you were on vacation, in a location where you won’t be likely to return to again. You can now upload them to the BillionGraves website, and they will be digitized and searchable within minutes.
Previously, you had to transcribe these records yourself, one image at a time. With Cemetery Intelligence, you no longer have to transcribe the names and dates yourself.
Get Started Today
- Log in to your BillionGraves account and go to the upload section on the Dashboard.
- Choose the record type (obituary, death certificate, funeral program, or headstone image).
- Upload your files — single or batch upload.
- Cemetery Intelligence processes them automatically, extracting and structuring the information. Or you can choose to manually transcribe them yourself.
- Review the results, make any adjustments if needed, and link them to existing records to build richer connections.
Learn More
- If you are a BillionGraves Plus subscriber, your uploaded records go to the top of the processing queue for faster results.
- Free users have their records processed in the standard queue alongside others.
- You can always choose to transcribe manually if you prefer, and this will follow the same guidelines as before, where you have 45 days to complete transcriptions before Cemetery Intelligence will finish the records for you.
- More record types will be added over time, and we plan to bring mobile photo capture for these records in the future. For now, uploads are handled from the desktop.
- The feature is live right now on BillionGraves.com.
Try it Out!
We have already tried this on several hundred thousand records with amazing success. If you have old newspaper clippings, family documents, or headstone photos ready to share, now is the perfect time to upload them.
Best of all, if you are already a BillionGraves Plus subscriber, you automatically have full access to Cemetery Intelligence at no additional cost. We are retiring the BillionGraves Plus subscription name, and all of its premium features have now been fully integrated into Cemetery Intelligence. This means you keep everything you previously enjoyed with Plus and gain the powerful new AI-driven capabilities that connect records, uncover hidden relationships, and generate rich ancestral stories.
Thank you for being part of this milestone. Your dedication to preserving and connecting these records makes BillionGraves more powerful every day.
Whether you’re building your family tree or adding additional information to your existing research, Cemetery Intelligence empowers you to connect the dots efficiently.
Ready to try it? Head to BillionGraves.com today and dive in.
Happy Researching!
Cathy Wallace
Cemetery Intelligence: BillionGraves' Newest Innovation!
