Find A Grave

[+ripraff]

I have used "Find A Grave" so much in doing Zinc and Revolutionary Soldier graves and in doing cemeteries, I decided it was time to give back. I created a logon and uploaded some photos for some graves that didn't have any. I already had the photos for the waymarks. It wasn't hard at all.

Edited June 6, 2016 by ripraff

[+ripraff]

My profile on find a grave is SueH. I added my waymaking profile as my webpage. Waymarkers, Feel free to add me as a friend on Find A Grave and tell me your profile name if you want to be added as a friend..

[+Manville Possum]

I have found some of my Waymarking photos and information on the FAG site.

[+Manville Possum]

I have found some of my Waymarking photos and information on the FAG site.

 

Oh, people are copying your photos and posting them on FAG and using your information?

 

I presume, Watson, without your permission.

 

Sure enough. I have also found a lot of misinformation on the FAG site.

[+ripraff]

I have found some of my Waymarking photos and information on the FAG site.

 

Oh, people are copying your photos and posting them on FAG and using your information?

 

I presume, Watson, without your permission.

[+ripraff]

"Please remember that Find A Grave is only the distributor of member supplied content and the submitter, not Find A Grave, is the one who would be responsible for any alleged copyright violation. However, we will respond to substantiated claims of violation. If you feel that another user has violated your copyright, you should send a claim of copyright violation to info@findagrave.com. In order for us to substantiate your claim, you MUST include all of the following information:

 

- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed, and the basis of the claim, including the URL

- Identification of the material on Find A Grave which is claimed to be infringing, including the URL

- Full contact information on the claimed copyright owner or other claimant, (who must have a license which is being infringed or other standing to make the claim.) This includes Full Name, Address, Phone Number, and Email Address.

- The Following Statement: ““I am the Owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of the copyright or of an exclusive right under the copyright that is allegedly infringed. The information in this notice is accurate.”

- A physical or electronic signature of the claiming party"

 

Alternatively you could contact the person who appears below the photo and ask for credit or removal.

[+ripraff]

I have found some of my Waymarking photos and information on the FAG site.

 

Oh, people are copying your photos and posting them on FAG and using your information?

 

I presume, Watson, without your permission.

 

Sure enough. I have also found a lot of misinformation on the FAG site.

 

Have you tried to correct it?

[+Manville Possum]

I have found some of my Waymarking photos and information on the FAG site.

 

Oh, people are copying your photos and posting them on FAG and using your information?

 

I presume, Watson, without your permission.

 

Sure enough. I have also found a lot of misinformation on the FAG site.

 

Have you tried to correct it?

No, I haven't. I'm not even sure how to go about it.

[+ripraff]

Quoted from Manville Possum "Have you tried to correct it?

 

No, I haven't. I'm not even sure how to go about it."

 

It is very simple: go to the FAG memorial for the individual that is in question. At the top there are five menu tabs, select edit. The edit menu will give you options of what type of edit you want to submit.

 

The edited information is not automatic: an email will be sent to the individual who created the memorial. It is at their discretion to accept or decline the edit.

 

After submitting the edit, I would suggest that you contact the creator of the memorial through their profile page (just click their name on the memorial page) with a brief statement for your reasons for the edit, most want the edit information validated.

 

Ask if you need more assistance.

[+Manville Possum]

I don't seem to have those options on my mobile app. One local cemetery is incorrectly named and the coordinates are off by two miles.

[+ripraff]

We depend a lot on information already on the web. We use links and quotes, but still it means someone else has supplied it. I figure once we post it it out there on the web and becomes community information including our photos, even though technically they are still ours.

I sent some family photos to a cousin and she posted them to Facebook without asking and I just found them on Ancestry. I was a bit surprised she didn't even ask. There were other documents relating to living people that should not be public on Ancestry too.

Genealogy has always had the problem with deciding if someone is providing good information. There are the professionals and those who are very careful and others that make leaps and connect with anything close. Errors are propagated and seen all over. Then there are the issues that I am assuming DNA testing might correct.

People interested in genealogy and cemeteries would be naturals for Waymarking. I was thinking linking my profile would be an implicit invitation. Of course the information on Waymarking sites is all correct.

[+Manville Possum]

People interested in genealogy and cemeteries would be naturals for Waymarking.

 

I bought my first GPS unit as a hiking tool and for recording the location of old historic sites and cemeteries. It was later that I found out about geocaching and Waymarking.

 

I have found a lot of my old family photos on the Ancestry site too, I'm sure they were taken from our local historical society site where I uploaded them several years ago.

 

I've got a nice collection of old cemetery photos on my Flicar account, but most are not listed as public. I'm a member of the Waymarking group there also.

[+ripraff]

Wow, I just found a case of someone who has entered thousands of entries on Find A Grave (over 3,000 a week) with a very high error rate. Many of the dates are off a bit, but in one case three people were entered as Shepard instead of Shepherd as it is on the gravestone. I left a message on his profile. I only mentioned the spelling, not the several errors in numbers. This is not a hard to read stone, it is a zinc gravestone with very clear letters. It is being fast and sloppy. It hurts to see this. I have noticed that spellcheck makes lots of changes and I need to check after the fact, but how do you enter 3 people with the wrong last name? I added the photos so anyone can see the number errors if they look closely.

Edited June 7, 2016 by ripraff

[+MountainWoods]

I don't seem to have those options on my mobile app. One local cemetery is incorrectly named and the coordinates are off by two miles.

I've been using FindAGrave for about 4+ years now, and have contributed quite a few photos and some records. (I'm simply Woods in FAG, which I wanted to be here, but geocaching.com wouldn't let me choose Woods.) I use it for any of my cemetery-related waymarks. It, and another site that rips data from it, help me to locate Headstones of Centenarians. Now back to this issue....

 

Seems that only TPTB can fix cemetery level information, as opposed to individual burial records. Anyone can create a new cemetery entry; the creator can then edit some of the information, but only the FindAGrave folks can change all/any of the information. And the latter are not responsive.

 

A few years ago someone started a new cemetery in a nearby county, and when the first (and, to this date, only) burial was done there, a contributor created an entry for the cemetery and first burial; but they put it in the wrong county. I contacted FindAGrave using the methodology they gave in the FAQ. Two years later, no change.

 

For some reason, the original creator of the entry turned over management of the lone grave to me. So I created the cemetery again in the correct county, created the new entry for the deceased using the information from the old record, then deleted the old record from the cemetery in the wrong county (since I was now manager of the burial record, but not the cemetery). I again contacted FAG to have the wrong cemetery deleted. No response.

 

So now there are two cemeteries with the same name, the correct one has the single burial in the cemetery -- which, I hope, will cause future contributions to go into the proper cemetery. The cemetery in the wrong county sits there empty of any burial records, and with the same cemetery write-up, but no one can get rid of it.

 

EDIT: I just checked back so that I could provide the URL to the (excuse me) dead cemetery, but it looks like it was finally removed after 4 years. It was there a couple of months ago.

Edited June 7, 2016 by MountainWoods

[+MountainWoods]

Wow, I just found a case of someone who has entered thousands of entries on Find A Grave (over 3,000 a week) with a very high error rate. Many of the dates are off a bit, but in one case three people were entered as Shepard instead of Shepherd as it is on the gravestone. I left a message on his profile. I only mentioned the spelling, not the several errors in numbers. This is not a hard to read stone, it is a zinc gravestone with very clear letters. It is being fast and sloppy. It hurts to see this. I have noticed that spellcheck makes lots of changes and I need to check after the fact, but how do you enter 3 people with the wrong last name? I added the photos so anyone can see the number errors if they look closely.

Yep. I know of a contributor that has over 10,000 records, but with so many errors it's a joke -- or would be, if this information weren't important to family and friends that continually get steered wrong by her slop. So far, she has accepted all of my edit suggestions, so she's good about that. But it's clear that she's only focusing on quantity with little regard at all to quality.

 

I've found entries for small cemeteries that you can walk in 10 minutes or less, but which you could not find the FAG entry listed for the cemetery. Why? Person visits 3 cemeteries this day, writes up a bunch of notes, perhaps takes photos (you hope!), goes home, writes everything up. Puts a person's grave in the wrong cemetery that they visited. Oh well, as long as the information is in there.

 

BTW, of dozens of edits that I've suggested, I've only had one rejected; and that was for the coordinates to someone's grave (probably a centenarian), and for some reason the manager of the entry didn't want it. Okay, fine.

[+ripraff]

Wow, I just found a case of someone who has entered thousands of entries on Find A Grave (over 3,000 a week) with a very high error rate. Many of the dates are off a bit, but in one case three people were entered as Shepard instead of Shepherd as it is on the gravestone. I left a message on his profile. I only mentioned the spelling, not the several errors in numbers. This is not a hard to read stone, it is a zinc gravestone with very clear letters. It is being fast and sloppy. It hurts to see this. I have noticed that spellcheck makes lots of changes and I need to check after the fact, but how do you enter 3 people with the wrong last name? I added the photos so anyone can see the number errors if they look closely.

Yep. I know of a contributor that has over 10,000 records, but with so many errors it's a joke -- or would be, if this information weren't important to family and friends that continually get steered wrong by her slop. So far, she has accepted all of my edit suggestions, so she's good about that. But it's clear that she's only focusing on quantity with little regard at all to quality.

 

I've found entries for small cemeteries that you can walk in 10 minutes or less, but which you could not find the FAG entry listed for the cemetery. Why? Person visits 3 cemeteries this day, writes up a bunch of notes, perhaps takes photos (you hope!), goes home, writes everything up. Puts a person's grave in the wrong cemetery that they visited. Oh well, as long as the information is in there.

 

BTW, of dozens of edits that I've suggested, I've only had one rejected; and that was for the coordinates to someone's grave (probably a centenarian), and for some reason the manager of the entry didn't want it. Okay, fine.

 

There names have been fixed! That was quick. They are now Shepherd. Hopefully that will make them easier to find.

[+elyob]

As a professional family historian, my rule is use on-line genealogical material ONLY as a starting point. Errors are everywhere. Use the on-line data as clues for undertaking actual research in actual documents, usually found in a library or archives.

[+ripraff]

I am getting into this Find A Grave thing. First I created a logon to submit Waymarking photos. Then I started correcting and adding to graves. It is easy in some things you can edit and they approve. Then I started creating my virtual cemetery for my family lines. Then I asked to maintain my parents and grandparents, I got 3 out of 4 requests. I started adding parent and spouse connections. Now I am corresponding with a genealogy buff who is a family member, cousin not too far removed. She is sending me photos and trees. I am adding missing family members and photos. I am linking Wikitree people to Find A Grave entries.

 

Will I have time left for Waymarking?

[+Manville Possum]

I am getting into this Find A Grave thing. First I created a logon to submit Waymarking photos. Then I started correcting and adding to graves. It is easy in some things you can edit and they approve. Then I started creating my virtual cemetery for my family lines. Then I asked to maintain my parents and grandparents, I got 3 out of 4 requests. I started adding parent and spouse connections. Now I am corresponding with a genealogy buff who is a family member, cousin not too far removed. She is sending me photos and trees. I am adding missing family members and photos. I am linking Wikitree people to Find A Grave entries.

 

Will I have time left for Waymarking?

 

I know that there are more of us interested in genealogy and photographing old cemeteries than there are active Waymarkers. I believe that Waymarkers have a lot to offer the FAG site.

[+elyob]

I am getting into this Find A Grave thing. First I created a logon to submit Waymarking photos. Then I started correcting and adding to graves. It is easy in some things you can edit and they approve. Then I started creating my virtual cemetery for my family lines. Then I asked to maintain my parents and grandparents, I got 3 out of 4 requests. I started adding parent and spouse connections. Now I am corresponding with a genealogy buff who is a family member, cousin not too far removed. She is sending me photos and trees. I am adding missing family members and photos. I am linking Wikitree people to Find A Grave entries.

 

Will I have time left for Waymarking?

 

Waymarking? Genealogy will take over everything. You may not have time for your living family members.

[+ripraff]

DNA test taken, down the rabbit hole, here we go......

[+elyob]

Good luck!

[+AutisticMajor]

I've been a contributor on Find A Grave for more than 7 years now (#47078252) I have 2 cemeteries in walking distance from where I live. Sometimes I find errors, but submitting corrections is easy. Some are really egregious, like once finding a father-son stone with them linked as married.

[+AutisticMajor]

I don't seem to have those options on my mobile app. One local cemetery is incorrectly named and the coordinates are off by two miles.

 

We have found the same thing. Sometimes over the years cemeteries are known or referenced by other names which is very confusing sometimes to find the cemetery on FAG. It would be great if we could search for a cemetery by coordinates, that way if it is reasonably close it could be found even under a different name. Or better yet, you could search for local cemetery locations when planning a trip.

 

As for the coordinates, we have found the same thing. One we would never have found if a sign was not on the main hwy. Unsure how you go about changing the coordinates, except possibly contacting FAG directly. Though I have tried this and did not get a response or was it changed.

 

We do not have mobile phones, so am not familiar with the app. I use a computer and keyboard (programmable).

 

The best way to fix this is to manually submit a correction on the FAG Forums, under https://www.findagraveforums.com/forum/4-cemetery-corrections/