When Norman Meinert researched his family tree 10 years ago, he couldn't imagine the wealth of information he would uncover.

The tedious work -- involving hours of delving through records and investigating cemeteries with his wife, Eileen -- ended with the invaluable reward of uncovering his roots. It also revealed an interest in historical landmarks, cemeteries and records in the O'Hara resident.

Meinert, 67, took his family project a little far -- throughout Allegheny County and onto the Internet -- and in the process, has assisted multiple other families in locating deceased relatives and solving mysteries in their family's past.

"When I started several years ago in St. Mary's Cemetery (in Sharpshill, O'Hara), I just continued from there," Meinert says. "Now I have been recording and providing information freely to the public by cataloging (the cemeteries in Allegheny County)."

Meinert has about 150 cemeteries' tombstone inscriptions included on his Web site, the Allegheny River Family Archives site, a free page provided for amateur genealogists and historians. He tries to provide photography of the cemetery's entrance and directions from major roads.

Sometimes, readers submit the catalogues; at other times, he and Eileen take the rides to the cemeteries and note the information themselves.

Meinert also appreciates the artistic quality of the cemeteries -- the engravings on tombstones, pillared columns, the sculptured shapes. The cemetery in Homewood hosts a grand collection of gravings and carvings.

"It's indescribable," Meinert says. "So much artwork goes into the sculpturing of tombstones."

Most recently, Meinert's posted information assisted Bob Manson, of Coshocton, Ohio, in finding a long-lost great-uncle. The Manson family contemplated for more than the past 80 years about the whereabouts of John Allen Manson.

Bob, similar to Meinert, searched draft registrations and death records to track the last years of John's life. The draft registration, complete with Pennsylvania addresses detailing his location in 1942, led him to search cemetery records in the area.

And there it was, John Allen Manson, right in the top four recovered entries, on Meinert's Web site.

"I would like to impart the ideal that you shouldn't give up -- I never thought I would find John Manson," Bob says. "Then out of the clear blue sky, I find a draft record; and a couple days later, I find out where he was buried. That's what we always hoped for."

The director of the Springdale Cemetery Association, Henrietta Eaton, says it has been quite a project for her and the organization to restore the dilapidated condition of the site and then, on top of it all, to have the information she gathered so diligently applied to a Web site.

"Mr. Meinert asked me if he could catalog our cemetery, but it had already been done," Eaton said. "So we provided him with the information and he added it to his Web site."

Meinert says over the course of a decade he has received a number of e-mails, phone calls and letters in regards to the content on his site. He most enjoys when he is able to assist people from out-of-state, who otherwise may not be able to locate the interred places of their relatives or friends.

One couple, about three years ago, contacted Meinert from New York. The woman wished to pay her last respects to her family, as she herself was aging and didn't want to die without visiting their grave sites.

Meinert located her family in Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville.

"Fortunately, I was able to find their names on the Internet and locate them," Meinert said. "They happened to be related to Steven Foster, a musician from the Lawrenceville area and it turned out they had a fascinating family tree. She made arrangements with her daughter to come out to pay her last respects. I was tickled to be able to help them out."

In addition to the cemetery postings, Meinert's Web page also includes photography of former schools, historical photos of municipalities and information about school classmates and reunions.

Those discoveries are what make the hard work and dedication to the Web page worthwhile.

"I'm elated (that the Mansons found their relative)," Meinert says. "My Web site serves its purpose when that happens; that's why it's out there. When people make those connections, it's like finding a gold nugget."