By reading a death record, I can sometimes find out where an individual is buried.  It is wonderful when the cemetery is listed on Find A Grave and the individual is listed as being buried in the cemetery.  Not so great when a volunteer offers to take a photo and can not find the tombstone.

On many cemetery websites there is notice similar to: As a result of years of neglect, many of the headstones/grave markers were ruined, lost, disappeared or destroyed.

To learn more how to help preserve cemeteries, check out Cemetery Projects and Preservation chapter in Your Guide to Cemetery Research by Sharon  DeBartolo Carmack.