Best of the Dark Side: 13 Most Mournful Cemetery, Funeral and Death Links

1. Death and Dementia

A well-curated collection of death-related links. I like how it's clean, well organized, not too ad-spammy, kept up to date, and the text links are brief and yet descriptive. I also like that unlike so many other directory sites, this one never stole links from my own site - they did their own research and found tons of useful links I never took the time to find. Great resource for death and dying studies courses, too.

http://www.deathndementia.com/

2. Rotten.com

One of the very first links I added, back in 1996 when Dark Side of the Net was new. Also the one link I got the most hate-mail for adding, over the years. Content warning: violence and disturbing images. Everything gruesome, disturbing and sick is archived here.

http://www.rotten.com/

3. Dead or Alive Info

A very useful site when you're trying to remember if a particular celebrity is dead or alive, and you're too lazy to Google it, check IMDB or run over to Wikipedia. There's a handy summary of the celebrities who have died in the past few days and what industry they were famous in.

http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com

4. The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying

An extremely valuable Internet resource, albeit too chock-full of Google ads. Everything from abortion to the Black Death to rigor mortis and voodoo.

http://www.deathreference.com/

5. Immortelle.Net

A beautiful photography gallery of New Orleans cemeteries. Pictorials include St. Louis 1, 2 and 3; St. Roch 1 and 2; Metairie; Lafayette I; Cypress Grove; Odd Fellows Rest; Carrollton; St. Vincent and more. There's also a section for virtual views of a few of the cemeteries.

http://www.immortelle.net

6. Sedlec Ossuary

A fabulous gallery of fairly high-res photographs of the Bone Church in Kutna Hora. Excellent photographs and there are many of them. I hope to visit the Bone Church someday; for now I just have to make do with these excellent photographs.

7. The Association for Gravestone Studies

A serious, scholarly organization, devoted to fostering "appreciation of the cultural significance of gravestones and burial grounds through their study and preservation." Info on upcoming scholarly conferences, publications, and a research library.

http://www.gravestonestudies.org/

8. Victorian Grief

A Livejournal community for sharing memento mori, cemetery pictures, info on Victorian mourning jewelry, and similar topics. Not quite as active as I'd prefer for a "best of" list, but it has potential, and I have a sweet spot for LJ communities.

http://community.livejournal.com/victorian_grief/

9. Find A Grave

An extremely valuable website for research on celebrity deaths. One of my oldest links, too. Glad to see it's still going strong. You can also search through non-famous people's grave records - currently 46 million records are searchable.

http://www.findagrave.com/

10. Professional Car.Org

A well maintained resource site for owners of classic hearses, ambulances and related cars. Gallery, events calendar, and active forums.

http://www.professionalcar.org/

11. The Bone Church

The official site of the church in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. Not just photographs, it covers the history of the ossuary.

http://www.kostnice.cz/

12. Save Our Cemeteries

An organization dedicated to preserving and restoring New Orleans' historic cemeteries.

http://www.saveourcemeteries.org/

13. Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum & Library

I used to have quite a collection of serial-killer and murderer links as part of my Cemeteries, Funerals & Death links page, but those links slowly died off. (Har, har). I have a bit of a fascination with Lizzie Borden since one of my friends grew up in her home in the 1980s. Here's a website devoted to research and resources about the infamous murders.

http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/

-Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net