topic Re: findagrave dotcom in Community Chat

findagrave dotcom

Mersha — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 20:46:26 GMT

I am in the process of working on geneaology, once again, and was shocked at the wealth of infomation that is now on findagrave dotcom.

I was surprised to see a high school yearbook picture of my mother along with her "bio." She was married several times and it listed all of them along with their details. My grandparents were listed as her parents with enough info that you could check them out as well.

If you are looking for any info about family members, check it out.

Also, they have people in different areas of the country that are willing to take pictures of any headstones that you request.

A lovely gentleman sent a picture of my great-great grandmother's headstone in another state and I was so appreciative.

Re: findagrave dotcom

ValuSkr — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 21:17:56 GMT

Yes, there's a lot of interesting information in find-a-grave. But my brother, who has done a lot of genealogical research, cautions that it's "not infrequently" inaccurate. The source of the information isn't given and, for all we know, could be some busybody with no relation to the deceased. I think it's best to use find-a-grave to corroborate information you already have, or to give you new leads or avenues to explore.

Re: findagrave dotcom

vermint — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 21:24:26 GMT

@Mersha, I love "exploring" on findagrave! Some cemeteries/graves offer a lot more info than others. I'm one who likes walking through old cemeteries anyway, so this is right up my alley. My mom's birth mother died when Mom and her twin sister were born...I was able to find her grave on findagrave. I also found her dad's & stepmother's graves, neither of which I have ever been able to visit due to distance. I'm not much into geneaology, but sometimes just being able to read someone's death certificate is very interesting. Also something I found to be nice---I can "leave a flower" on someone's page. I don't visit my mom's & dad's graves very often, but I can go to their pages and leave a digital flower & note.

Re: findagrave dotcom

PA Mom-mom — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 21:31:39 GMT

@Mersha My DH uses that website in his research, but as @ValuSkr states there are some inaccuracies. Historical research is like that. We have gone miles out of our way to stop at a graveyard only to come up with nothing. Not necessarily someone guessing, just bad 'credible' information. Still useful though.

Re: findagrave dotcom

sunshine45 — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 21:35:40 GMT

going to check into this further, but so far i am having trouble finding a number of my relatives.....no information at all.

i do love walking through cemeteries also, especially in new orleans.

Re: findagrave dotcom

Mersha — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 21:42:44 GMT

@vermint wrote:
@Mersha, I love "exploring" on findagrave! Some cemeteries/graves offer a lot more info than others. I'm one who likes walking through old cemeteries anyway, so this is right up my alley. My mom's birth mother died when Mom and her twin sister were born...I was able to find her grave on findagrave. I also found her dad's & stepmother's graves, neither of which I have ever been able to visit due to distance. I'm not much into geneaology, but sometimes just being able to read someone's death certificate is very interesting. Also something I found to be nice---I can "leave a flower" on someone's page. I don't visit my mom's & dad's graves very often, but I can go to their pages and leave a digital flower & note.

@vermint I am so happy that you mentioned the digital flower. I have been doing the same thing.

My mother and dad's graves are in another state so it really was a source of comfort that I could put that digital flower and leave a message they were my mother and father and were loved.

I found out in my time checking out that site there are volunteers who leave digital flowers and a verse for those having none.

Re: findagrave dotcom

RedTop — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 22:03:15 GMT

@Mersha

I agree, the website does contain a wealth of information, and has been a great help to me with my genealogy searches.

I have been a member of this site for 12+ years and find incorrect information frequently. I have contacted numerous people who maintain the individual listing in order to get information corrected.

My biggest issue with this site has been with members who do not live in my area of WV, are not familiar with this local area, but try to sit at their computer in another state and assign this recent obituary info under a named cemetery in WV. Often times it's not even in the right county of WV!

Re: findagrave dotcom

RedTop — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 22:11:37 GMT

@sunshine45

If you go to the findagrave website and click on memorials, you can enter the names of your relatives and search in any area of the US and beyond.

I have found relatives in huge searches that came up with more than 5,000 names, but once I narrowed it down with more specific info, I found the people I was searching for.

Re: findagrave dotcom

gardenman — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 23:33:43 GMT

It's a pretty neat site. It seemed accurate enough on most of my family but missed an uncle completely even though he had extensive obits in multiple newspapers. It also missed four family members in a smaller cemetery that's out of the way.

Re: findagrave dotcom

beachdad — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 23:51:19 GMT

I have mixed feelings about this site.

I was surprised to the picture of the stone where my mom and brother (who died at 28) are. Right on the stone it says "MOM" and "SON." The site originally had them as MARRIED! If you looked at the dates you would think that was crazy! Someone finally corrected it, but took a new picture. The old one was taken during spring or summer, and you could see the flowers DH and I planted. The new one was taken after the flowers had died.

A lot of people see a lovely tribute to their loved ones.

beach-mom

Re: findagrave dotcom

RedTop — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 03:47:46 GMT

@beachdad

My husbands grandmother lost a son in infancy; her obituary is listed on the findagrave website, along with the information of several of her deceased children.

In looking at her page online last year, I found information on a deceased veteran, with the same first and last name of Granny's baby, listed with her other deceased children! Grannys baby is buried in a very small rural cemetery with her ex-husband. Granny is buried in a perpetual care cemetery; same one as the veteran, but they are not related. It took 2 emails for me to get that mistake corrected.

Volunteers submit the posted information you read to this website. I manage multiple pages of my own families information on this website, but do not sit here in WV and try to attach obituary information for unknown people in other states online; not as a single memorial listing, or by a cemetery listing. However, too many volunteers are doing this and creating a big mess!

Re: findagrave dotcom

cindyNC — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 10:05:01 GMT

I can't remember how I found it. But there is also ANC Explorer............for finding graves in Arlington National Cemetary and other points of interest in the cemetary.

Re: findagrave dotcom

Moonlady — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 17:40:39 GMT

LOL Findagrave--started by four people with nothing to do but stick their noses in everybody else's business. That "wealth of information" is frequently incorrect. I've also read about family members who find incorrect information and are unable to correct it because the person who started the "memorial" refuses to relinquish it. Some of these stories are heartbreaking because some close relatives don't view it for what it is: a hobby for ghouls who enter cemeteries so that they can stand on graves, take pictures, and amass "memorials" ("neener, neener, I made more than you!") to strangers.

Sure, findagrave is interesting--when looking at other people's info. And if yours is correct, why aren't YOU the lucky one!

Re: findagrave dotcom

vermint — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 11:02:54 GMT

@Moonlady I've made several requests for info to be edited which were quickly responded to! The person doesn't have to relinquish the memorial to fix it.

My requests weren't for any relatives of mine, either...just glaring errors in dates, and in some cases, children/spouses being reversed, children listed who were born several years after the person dies, etc.

I don't ask for every error I see to be corrected, just a few really obvious ones...I know when I'm typing that sometimes my fingers go faster than my brain, so I imagine that others have the same problems!

Re: findagrave dotcom

AuntG — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 11:42:47 GMT

Have you asked them to correct the inaccuracies @Moonlady . The volunteer genealogists who photograph the stones and add obituaries want things to be accurate, but it's a large task. Can you imagine what a mess it would be if the government were in charge of cataloging cemeteries? These are volunteers with a passion for their work.

Re: findagrave dotcom

Trailrun23 — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 19:48:01 GMT

I have used find a grave.com for several years in trying to find out when and where some family members passed away many years ago. Once, my SIL called me since she was at a party with some family members in Illinois and they were wondering where a great great uncle was buried. I looked it up on find a grave.com and had the answer In two minutes. They were very impressed that I knew. It is amazing to see a photograph of a big headstone with your own grandfather's name on it. He was buried in another country long before I was born. I felt such a connection seeing that photo.

Another good site is ellisisland.com. You can see the manifest of everyone who was on the ships coming into Ellis Island from other countries.bit will show their ages and the name of the ship, etc. DD's family emigrated from Sweden and he found so much info on that site.

Re: findagrave dotcom

Tinkrbl44 — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 23:49:36 GMT

Until just reading this thread, I'd never heard of findagrave. What an unbelievable source!

However ...... does this mean their information for people buried in cemeteries?

If a person is cremated, ashes scattered, nothing comes up? (I'm serious)

Re: findagrave dotcom

Icegoddess — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:02 GMT

@Tinkrbl44 , they used to discourage it since it's called Find a GRAVE. However, they do now have a category for non-grave burials which include cremations and burials at sea. However, some abuse it when they don't actually know where the remains are. If they have an obit, they'll just post it under that category when they may, in fact, be buriied in a cememtery somewhere.

They also discourage posting obits identifying living relatives. However, I send full obits to the Memorial's Manager and let them decide what to do with it.

Also, if you decide to shorten the name of the site, they prefer FG rather than the other one, although I do use the other abbreviation in my records. I would hope that someone looking at my records would realize I'm not calling so many people such an offensive name, especially since it is always followed by the Memorial's identifying number.

Re: findagrave dotcom

Mersha — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:02:34 GMT

@Tinkrbl44 This resource is just for those with headstones buried in cemeteries. I have heard of placing another family member's ashes in the grave and suspect they might put that on the headstone also.

It is an interesting resource for tracing your geneanology but, as others have posted, some of the info is not correct.

Re: findagrave dotcom

Mersha — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:04:55 GMT

@Icegoddess wrote:
@Tinkrbl44 , they used to discourage it since it's called Find a GRAVE. However, they do now have a category for non-grave burials which include cremations and burials at sea. However, some abuse it when they don't actually know where the remains are. If they have an obit, they'll just post it under that category when they may, in fact, be buriied in a cememtery somewhere.

They also discourage posting obits identifying living relatives. However, I send full obits to the Memorial's Manager and let them decide what to do with it.

Also, if you decide to shorten the name of the site, they prefer FG rather than the other one, although I do use the other abbreviation in my records. I would hope that someone looking at my records would realize I'm not calling so many people such an offensive name, especially since it is always followed by the Memorial's identifying number.

@Icegoddess Interesting to see you on this thread.