UPDATE: As of May 26, 2009, the Nationwide Grave Locator website is down – thus the following link will not work. I can find no further information on the subject – and figure that this is most likely temporary – but it’s not been working for a few days now.
The Department of Veteran’s affairs Nationwide Gravesite Locator online database is a wonderful resource for genealogists. With a few keystrokes you can locate graves for all kinds of family members, and get a cemetery map to go with it. When I did a search for the surname Meitzler, I came up with 16 different people.
My cousin, Elmore Meitzler, and his wife, Doris, are buried in the Fort Custer National Cemetery in Augusta, Michigan. Elmore fought in WW II in Europe.
If I hadn’t known where he was buried, I could have easily have found the information by going to the VA’s Nationwide Gravesite Locator website – then typing his name in the search box, and clicking “Search Now.”
I would then obtain the following information:
- MEITZLER, ELMORE G
- T5 US ARMY
- WORLD WAR II
- DATE OF BIRTH: 05/27/1915
- DATE OF DEATH: 05/09/1987
- BURIED AT: SECTION 1 SITE 362
- FT. CUSTER NATIONAL CEMETERY
- 15501 DICKMAN ROAD NO. ENTRANCE SVC MAINTENANCE BLDG AUGUSTA, MI 49012; (269) 731-4164
By clicking on the link found with the “Buried At:” category, I get a map of the cemetery with Elmore’s information on it. Keep in mind that the computer just found what I asked it to look for. Doris is buried next to him, but I don’t get that information unless I do a search for her – or a surname search for all Meitzlers. Note that there is also an advanced search available on the same page, where I can search by cemetery, birth and death date and so forth.
Try searching for some of your surnames at: http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/j2ee/servlet/NGL_v1.
The following link on your website is broken.
http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/j2ee/servlet/NGL_v1.
Thought you’d like to know.