VA puts gravesite maps online

The Department of Veterans Affairs has added online maps of burial sections in national cemeteries that people can print from home computers or at kiosks in the cemeteries. The VA said today that the addition of the online grave maps will make it easier to locate more than 3 million veterans and dependents buried in the national cemeteries.

The feature improves a service begun two years ago that allowed family members to find the cemetery that contains their loved ones.

“This new map feature makes it easier for families, friends and researchers to find the exact location of a veteran’s grave in all national cemeteries and some state veterans' cemeteries,” VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said in a statement. “It enhances the VA’s service at national cemeteries, already highly regarded, and our commitment to them as national shrines and historical treasures.”

By entering a veteran’s name and clicking on the “Buried At” link, a map displays the national cemetery, showing the grave’s specific location.

The VA recently added many private cemeteries to its database. Those cemeteries contain 1.9 million veterans with VA grave markers. That brings the number of graves in the locator to about 5 million. The department said it adds approximately 1,000 new records to the database each day, and it plans to add the exact locations of veterans’ gravesites in the remaining state veterans’ cemeteries.

The gravesite locator can be accessed at http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov.