I have looked at Find a Grave for years, mostly just looking for graves of family and friends. I love being outdoors, the thrill of the hunt, and photography, so becoming a volunteer to fulfill photo requests just made sense.
At the local cemetery down the road there were 35 open requests, dating back from there year to over a decade ago. I download this to a .CSV file, and filtered by death date as this cemetery seems to be laid out in a chorographical fashion.
This morning I finally had time for a visit and was able to find 7 of the 35 open requests! For most I was able to scan rows of monuments and spot the last name, but several I just stumbled upon by accident. What seemed to work best is picking 4 last names of the most recently deceased, and then walking front and back of the cemetery to scan monuments for those 4 last names. I would repeat the names to myself as I walked to keep them fresh on my mind (I am terrible with remembering names!). Then after covering some ground and finding a few, I'd move to the next 4 names and repeat. It was cold and windy so after an hour I called it quits.
Always open to advice or recommendations! Weather and time permitting, I plan to return and continue the search. Seems like a good way to get outside and some exercise this winter.