Tony Hồ Trần routinely visits Chicago cemeteries to document plot markers and grave stones to upload to findagrave.com. But why does he do it? After finding his grandfather’s grave on the site and revealing part of a family mystery, Tran wants to help keep the memory of others alive as long as possible.
It’s a good way to spend a Saturday morning—if, admittedly, a strange one. I wake up and pack a tote bag with leather gardening gloves, a water bottle, a towel, and headphones. Then I drive to one of Chicago’s 272 cemeteries and spend hours taking pictures of the dead.
I do this once a month or so. Alongside shots of my dog and gym selfies, my phone’s camera roll is filled with photos of gravestones of all shapes, sizes, and materials: massive granite monuments fit for the Chicago industrialists buried underneath them, humble flat markers that I’m prone to tripping over, and sandstone slabs so worn down by centuries of sun, rain, and snow that there’s no telling who’s buried there.
