One of the most popular books and movies in the last year was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I have a friend who plans his family's vacations around stops at cemeteries. He's been known to screech to a halt at the sight of an old cemetery on the side of the road. That's fine if your only purpose is to check out the epitaphs on the tombstones. However, if your purpose is good genealogical research, you need to be prepared.
Cemeteries contain lots of genealogical information.
The tombstones or plaques are memorials to the lives of those who have passed before us. Mankind tries to immortalize itself with such monuments. Most, however, are of a simpler, more somber nature. They contain name, dates, and sometimes even an inscription to impart something of the person's character to successive generations. The information found on tombstones, monuments, plaques, and in mausoleums should be considered to be secondary records at best.