As a photographer, should you photograph all the gravestones in a cemetery - regardless of their condition? Yes!

Some gravestones may be completely unreadable. We understand that. We also understand that many of these will be red-flagged during the transcription process, but that's okay.

With a little research, these gravestones can reveal individuals with real stories!

This stone is almost completely unreadable. Transcribers tagged it as such. Later, a researcher found older images of the gravestone on Find a Grave and was able to mark this as the gravestone for Susan Binkley, widow of Jacob Binkley, Sr., born in 1757 and died in 1837.  Placing names and dates with this particular gravestone, along with the GPS location, will be invaluable to those researching in Washington County, Maryland.

Here's another example. This one is in the Salt Lake City, Utah Cemetery. This one requires heavy research. Using the Cemetery Plat Maps in a program called Names In Stone, the GPS location, and the Nearby Graves feature in BillionGraves, it was determined there are actually four individuals buried under this stone. James Nutt, age 11, his brother Alfred, age 9, sister Josephine, age 4, and their mother, Mary Ann Nutt, age 29.  All died between 1869-1878. Using cemetery data, the researcher was able to determine that little Josephine died from a lung condition, brothers James and Alfred of diphtheria, and mom, Mary Ann, of complications from childbirth. They are still under this stone or close to it according to cemetery records. There were no other stones in the area.