Community Chat

[RedTop]

@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!

[cindyNC]

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. 

[Moonlady]

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!

[vermint]

@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!

[AuntG]

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.

[Trailrun23]

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.

[Tinkrbl44]

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)

[Icegoddess]

@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.

[Mersha]

@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.

[Mersha]

---

@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.