The Grave Hunters Society
The Grave Hunters Society #
Who We Are #
The Grave Hunters Society was formed in 2020 by Andrea and Jonathan Batteas, after years of specialized experience in freelance historical research on events, individuals, and locations, as a way to bring together the many, different facets of their love of exploration into the intriguing and unknown.
Andrea Batteas
Andrea grew up with a love for all things “old and vintage” especially if it had a story attached to it. That love eventually led her to volunteering for several local historical societies. Andrea broadened her research abilities in 2014, when she was asked by a nation-wide tour company to write and run a walking haunted history tour for the city of Dayton, Ohio. After the success of those tours, she went on to research and facilitate tours, in cooperation with Ghost Hunting Source and Miami Valley Paranormal Services, of locations in Springfield, Ohio including the Robertson Building and The State Theater. It was through these tours that her love of urban exploration and investigation into the long-forgotten buildings of the past began to take shape. The tours also gave her the opportunity to become acquainted with Paranormal Spirit Encounter Investigations (PSEI), a paranormal investigation group out of Toledo, Ohio. Andrea completed in-depth research for the team on over twenty locations that included difficult-to-find information such as original landowners, deaths on or near the property, county histories, and individual biographical sketches. She has an uncanny sense of knowing just where to look for information. She continues her research into anything interesting that comes across her desk.
Jonathan Batteas
Jonathan fell in love with research at a young age when he was told the story of a family treasure buried away in the distant past. This began his voracious appetite for maps of all kinds. As he grew older, and began to integrate new technologies into his research, and saw an explosion in information he was able to find. He consistently uses his expertise as a software and research engineer for the University of Dayton Research Institute to create custom tools and processes to increase his efficiency as a fact-finder. From geographical information systems (GIS), digital forensics and image analysis, optical character recognition (OCR), text extraction and sentiment analysis to bulk data acquisition and automated analysis, Jonathan applies computerized techniques to be as thorough and accurate as possible in his findings.
Our Story #
It all started in the back room of an antique mall on Andrea’s birthday.