Jan. 11, 2000

A Salt Lake City man's fascination with cemetaries has turned into a lucrative business on the Internet. News Specialist Angela An shows us more about the man who created Findagrave.com.

It's a website unlike any other. Type in the name of someone famous who's dead, like Lucille Ball, and you get the name, place and photo of where she's buried.

Jim Tipton's hobby inspired him to start Find-a-Grave.com in 1995.

Jim Tipton/"Find-A-Grave.com" Creator: "PRESIDENTS, HISTORICAL FIGURES, KINGS AND QUEENS OF OTHER COUNTRIES..."

From John F. Kennedy, to King Henry the 8th, who died in 1547. These gravesites are a bit like a history class all under the click of your mouse.

Tipton: "YOU'LL GET A RANDOM SERIES OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE SOMEHOW SHAPED THE U.S. OR THE WORLD."

That includes famous Utahns, like Lester Wire, inventor of electric traffic signals.

And don't forget about the common criminal. Or the un-common criminal, like Al Capone.

ANGELA AN/EYEWITNESS NEWS: "THERE'S EVEN A CATEGORY FOR ANIMALS, LIKE MR. ED AND RIN TIN TIN. HERE WE HAVE AN ANIMAL-- OLD EPHRAIM, WHO WAS A LARGE GRIZZLY BEAR THAT ONCE LIVED IN LOGAN, UTAH."

More than 800 people contribute to Find-a-grave.com, sending in gravesite photos from around the world.

Tipton says while his website may seem a bit morbid, he's really just celebrating life, although his Find A Grave does focus on the dead.

Tipton: "SHOWS NO SIGN OF LETTING UP, SO I'M NOT SURE WHERE IT'LL END UP, BUT PEOPLE KEEP DYING, AND THEY KEEP GETTING ADDED."

Tipton says Find- a- grave.Com recieves roughly 1.5-million hits per week, which makes it one of the top 5,000 websites in the world.

Find the link at www.findagrave.com.