When I leave a flower, I try and leave my relationship to the person for whom I am leaving a flower. It also helps other researchers who may be looking for relatives. It helps them know you are related and not just a friend or someone who leaves flowers on random memorials.
Note of caution on Find-a-Grave. Photos of old limestone graves are sometimes heavily covered in lichens that contribute to a partially dissolved facing. A marker dated 1733 could in fact be 1738. Also, some markers have been replaced in recent years by a family's enthusiastic re-discovery and newfound interest in genealogy. They don't always get it correct. Always verify your work.
I actually found a joint headstone where the wife and husband's last names were transcribed differently. It's so important to suggest corrections when you have verified information to contribute.
One thing to remember when photographing tombstones is lighting. I always take a spray bottle of plain water to squirt on the lettering on the tombstone. This brings out the lettering in the picture. Also, always look on backs of tombstones. In my case my parents are buried on one side and my grandparents are buried on the other. Some times you can find additional information on the backside of tombstones.
Also, wipe away any dirt or leaves. I've seen so many people take pictures of headstones, but some part of the name was covered by dirt etc when you would easily wipe it off and have a much clearer usable picture.
Thanks Constance for another great and helpful video! My son and I are contributors on Find-a-Grave too, we usually go out one or two Saturdays a month and print out the photo requests in our area. It’s a lot of fun and gives him and I some bonding time as well! I also enjoy using the transcription feature on their site and helping out that way as well.
When I started using findagrave there were about 500 thousand listings. Where my family are from there were several ardent findagrave transcribers, so I found a lot of family listings. I looked for cemetery transcription's and added entire listings to findagrave. Just yesterday I found a distant relative and saw she is showing in-correct parents. I added her death certificate and obituary. The person who controls the listing has been notified and hopefully a correction will be made. I always read the obits if there is one.
Just a word of caution. Not all info that volunteers have contributed is accurate. This is a good jumping off point, however, for further research. I recently discovered a tombstone attributed to one cemetery was actually in a different cemetery in the same town.
Great video, Constance. Thanks for sharing. I like to contribute by adding exact dates and places of births and deaths when only the years are listed. I also corrected a few errors. Another thing I do is link people to their parents so that all of the siblings become grouped as a family. I haven't tried the virtual cemeteries or left flowers yet and I now understand their value.
Great tips! I never understood the Virtual Cemetery link before but now I realize that's a really helpful tool to have information organized in a handy way. One comment about uploading from a cemetery. I spent some time in a cemetery three-days-drive from my home this past summer. Managed to photograph and upload requested photos on two or three graves before my phone died. So, be mindful of power constraints. You can always photograph and upload later. The other thing is I never heard back from any of the people who had requested photos. I don't need that, (maybe they aren't interested anymore for many reasons) but I think if someone fulfills a request I might make, I would try to send out a Thank You right away!
Interesting thought about the phone battery. I'll keep that in mind. Re: the response from photo requests, it might be that they did not get the notification... or they may have passed away. Just a thought.
Also know your storage on device before you go! I went with my parents and thought I had enough room, but ended up loosing several because my phone was full and about ten of my last photos were just white! I had a stick and tried to take some time to save some and delete some, but that’s a time consuming process especially when you’re out in a remote location at a cemetery. Some family had been photographed before, but none of the photos for that cemetery had gps data. Also the records are a “map” and there are two grave markers, one probably a direct ancestor, that are just initials…on the map it’s initials for first and middle name and does give the complete surname but that’s it. My next project is to verify that no other records exist someplace else, verifying the plot info. Death certificates only indicated cemetery name.
This happens frequently…they may have forgotten all about the request and then ignored the reply or the FAG notice could have gone to spam and never seen. I recently got a reply one year after I had replied. The ball is in their court….I don’t fret about it…I did my part. I certainly Never take someone’s information as Fact. I’ve seen too much sloppy research or Assumptions. Verify Always with your own research of Documents that you yourself see!
I just watched this. I have used findagrave often but never knew about virtual cemeteries so immediately created one. Just looking at one cemetery I discovered the recent death of a family member that I was unaware of and the location of several graves I hadn’t known before. Thank you for passing your knowledge on to us.
Thanks so very much. I arrived 60 years later, looking for my sister's grave. Your tip to use the cemetery and only her last name did the trick, even though her full name did pop up as the only result.
Thanks Conney, I have been using Finda a Grave for several years now, mainly correcting or adding information, using the EDIT feature. I enjoy joining family up. I learnt so much today, that I will now take on board next time.
When I first started genealogy, FAG was my major source of finding my people. When a profile is started, who does the linked people? And thank you to those who put the plot numbers. Family plots make it much easier to determine who's family, if not the relationships.
I love findagrave and the app. I recently discovered that my ggreat-grandfather had all but one of his children buried in his plot but they only have one large stone for all of them. We have been leaving actual flowers for him for many years not knowing about the others so I added that information and linked his other son and my grandmother to him.
Thank you spreading the word about this important tool. Just in passing, I noticed your Flora Henley married a Coltrane. Coltrane is one of my allied lines also in Randolph County. My ancestors were McDaniels and Clarks. Thanks for all videos!
Thank you for your great videos. There's always so much to learn. I found FAG helps me find missing children. Those that were born & died between census. The attached obituaries can add so much info. I'm starting a virtual cemetery & will be adding flowers to all inquiries. 👍 💞
This was a good tutorial, learned more about Find A Grave which will be helpful as I research the Dudleys of Connecticut for a family friend. The Virtual Cemetery is something I didn't understand and it sounds like a great place to attach memorials. My friend only knew of about 100 family members, so I dug into this and found 962 members and counting. Learning quite a bit about doing researching this family as they came from England in 1639 and settled in Guilford, CT. I'm having such a great time working on this family, finding all the "goodies" on individuals.
Thank you for the tutorial. Spent 2021 trying to navigate ancestry, family tree, find a grave and newspapers websites. This is very helpful advice. I can hardly wait to start my own virtual graveyard.
My grandmother was buried in an unmarked grave in Maine in 1928. Dads family didnt have enough money for a headstone apparently. Proving really hard to find her location.
Thank you for this! Great tips for beginners, and great reminders for more seasoned genealogists. Love the ability to 'create' virtual cemeteries to group generations and extended family!
I am a volunteer photographer and historian for Find-a-Grave. Also, sometimes you will come across a military's person who has to gravestones. But is buried in two different places. One may of been for his limb and later one for himself.
One of my great aunts daughters has 2 burial locations. One in Michigan & one in a National Cemetery in Florida. I knew they lived in Michigan. With more research, I discovered they wintered in Florida. Her husband died in Florida & was buried there. She became ill & returned home where her mother cared for her. When she died she was buried in the family plot in Michigan. Her name on the plate with her husband in Florida is just a marker.
One of the things I do (which is related to one of the things you do) is look in the cemetery for others with the same name, especially if I am missing a spouse or a young child. I have found spouses, second spouse, young children, parents, married children that way. Because you are right, if there are people with the same last name in a cemetery, there is a good chance they are related.
In 2013, I discovered that a local man in Vermilion County, IL had done every cemetery in his county, complete with pictures of headstones. I saw my paternal grandmother's headstone, which I had never seen before. I also found out that is not allowed at national cemeteries, unless they authorize it.
I started contributing to the site not too long ago. I had been searching for my great uncles and a great aunt but they hadn't been connected to my grandpa at all. So I made a memorial for him with a grave photo and once I found his parents who were connected to his siblings I requested the author of their memorials attach them together. I've been adding in ones for my dad and his siblings too. Once the weather cools a bit I plan to go back to the cemetery and do some photos of the long list of requests that are on the site for that graveyard. The virtual cemetery is a great feature, I've accumulated quite a lot of folks in there LOL
Thank you for the tips. I have been a Find-A-Grave user for a long time and therefore figured a few things out over the years (it’s a hobby I pick up and put down periodically). I was wondering about how to best use some of the features though and found your video. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos as a new subscriber.
never underestimate the power of photos---if you have a family photo, add them to the find a grave memorial for that person. Just nice to connect a face to an ancestor, especially the old photos, or the military photos.
My little, rural NH town has eight cemeteries, and one of our computer-savvy trustees has taken the time to compile a complete database of all burials as well as creating computerized maps of all eight yards. A number of graves have no monument or marker so the locations are not always exact. This information is available in the town library.
After watching your video, I started an account on Find a Grave. I started going to local cemeteries trying to find requested stones. It’s tougher then you would think. Most of old stones are washed away or covered on moss. I’ve watched other videos on touching / cleaning stones. Unfortunately I can’t find any of my relatives on Find a grave, unless it was entered in by someone else. Great videos.
Thanks. I’ve had the same experience running around cemeteries trying to find people. Most the cemeteries around here already been photographed that have tombstone’s. Some of the people that are being asked for, no longer have tombstone’s.
I've noticed that many photos requested are for older burials. Most of the time, those graves are lost, either because the stone has sunk underground, been removed, or never existed.
I came across your vidio this week and I want to say thanks. I had not been able to find any information on my great-grandma on my mother's side. I knew that she died young as my grandma told me she died when she was a little girl. With this vidio I used things you said and found her death certificate. Her last nam was spelt wrong but because it had my great grandfather's name and address on it I knew it was her. Thanks for your help and vidio. By the way my maiden name is also Knox.
LOL - I was just researching Kansas Henley's yesterday! Trying to find a link to my main tree from a DNA cousin. Thanks for the suggestion to leave flowers in Findagrave.
Thank you very much for the video, it was very well done and informational. On another note. I'm having a serious problem with other Find A Grave members who are constantly taking my memorial contributions and making them their own. How is it that this can happen? Perhaps Find A Grave can create something within the program to protect those of us who work diligently to contribute memorials only to find that it is being stolen from you. Any suggestions wold be so greatly appreciated as this happens all the time and I am running out of ideas. Thank you
Glenda, you should be getting notification of someone requesting the memorial. I'm wondering if you're not getting these notifications (turned off on FaG or blocked by your email settings). Here is an article with the support email address. support.findagrave.com/s/article/Request-to-Manage
@@GenealogyTV - Thank you very much. I will research this and see if it is something on my end. Also. I do not have any options on FaG Cemetery. It only gives me options of cremation, buried at sea, etc. Most of the time it is neither one of them, It is because the, "Burial Details are Unknown." However, I have to make a choice or I cannot go any further with the Bio.. Again, thank you for any information you can give me to help me better understand how FaG works.
Tip #6: the information listed may be completely wrong. When I got started, I assumed somehow the info had been checked against cemetery records or something, not that some random person maybe just made a mistake or flat out made a post in bad faith. I regard the site as a hint only. I know people who have even contacted the original poster to say they are wrong and they have proof. Yet the original poster will refuse to change anything. And once posted, only the original poster can make a correction. The site itself refuses to help.
It takes time and sometimes cost (petrol) to take photos so it’s a nice courtesy to return the favour by acknowledging the person who took the photo when you do use a photo elsewhere. Not all photo volunteers use their name when posting online but some do.
@@mdestacpoole I always acknowledge and credit the volunteer who took the photo if I use it, plus if someone fulfills a photo request for me I send them a thank you message.
I made a virtual cemetery on my Great Aunt, who died at about two years old in Oklahoma, I went back to visit it over the years, and someone had deleted my Aunt's information and put my Great Grandmothers name down for being buried there in that cemetery, it would be her Grandmother. There was a grave number on it, but my my Great Grandmother died in Texas, many years before my Grandmother moved to Oklahoma, where this virtual cemetery was made by me. The lady who managed this cemetery, at the time I had set up this virtual cemetery, had died, but someone changed this information, using the same lady who died, being the manager of this cemetery as the manager of this grave. How can someone delete your information , where your the manager, and change things when the original manager is dead? You can't go back, and ask the original manager anything, they still have her as a manager, and she is not on this earth anymore. I know it's confusing, but it's hard to explain.
That's a really good question. I'm not sure. Have you tried the "Suggest Edits" form near the top, under the Memorial ID? It might go to the staff at Ancestry (since they own FindAGrave). You can also contact Find A Grave at www.findagrave.com/contact
What if you haven't seen your dad since 1996, though he was raised in Puerto Rico but in 96 he lived in Charlotte, NC, haven't heard anything from him since, how would I know where he is if he died etc? Ancestry just has one hint and it's about when he lived in NJ between 89-90
someone added my 9th great grandpa on find a grave. I looked at the records from the city, county clerk's office in Ekfrid, Ontario. that particular cemetery says the first burial in Lotan cemetery was in 1850, 126 years after my 9th great grandpa was allegedly buried there. it's so frustrating. his son and daughter in law, my 8th great grands are buried on the farm they had in NY state, and others have said they're in some family cemetery. there are two graves with those names on them, but they're both from more than a century later.
One thing about doing photography in a cemetery. You might have to get permission from the admin of the cemetery. I tried to take some photos of relative headstones and their security escorted me to the office to explain what I was doing. I was "granted" permission in this case but was told not to take photos of other headstones etc. Here in Calif. Silicon Valley some folks get a little paranoid about this.
I am from Denmark and enjoy your videos. Is it me or is there no graves listes from here? I have one question though. You said that you can voulenteer, but is there some rules I need to follow before taking pictures of others graves?
Official rules, no. But I would suggest a couple of things... Take a small broom or rush to dust off dirt. A pair of grass clippers too, to cut away grass that is covering tombstones. Sometimes people take pictures and grass covers the words. Also, take a wide shot of the area showing what tombstones are around the featured tombstone.... because family is often buried next to the featured headstone. Get a picture of the entrance to the cemetery. Use the Find-A-Grave app... and allow it to capture your location. You can take the picture and fill in the form while in the cemetery and it will add the GPS coordinates in the app. Take a selfie of you volunteering and promote it on social media. Thanks for the great question. Also, my ancestry is from Denmark! :) Thanks for watching Genealogy TV!
@@GenealogyTV I purposely DON'T use apps on my Apple 6s due to hacking stuff but MAY get this one, since you have been using the APP how many times has it changed & updated? I find such annoying
Thanks for sharing all this wonderful information. My question is, why is it important to save the memorial ID number? What would I use this for? Thanks!!
If you need to go back to that record on Find a Grave later on, you can search by that ID number. Also, someone who may inherit your records, could also find it.
I have noticed more and more people are posting death certificates and obituaries on Find-A-Grave as pictures, but there is no source information. How do you handle that?
I typically I reach out to the contributor (link in FindAGrave) and ask them for the source. Sometime it takes a while to get a response. In the meantime, check FamilySearch.org to see if the have it.
I sometimes add corrected or additional info in the flower message if the manager won’t respond to an edit request or has the ‘you can’t email me’ message. At least you help other researchers who will see the flower.
What do I do if the diseased is not in a cemetary but an old family plot. Will the app let you enter longitude and latityde ? I found the family plot of the 1st Baltimore sheriff but it's next to a hospital & community college
Two questions: 1-Will other researchers see my virtual cemetery while searching around? 2-If I create a contributing account, can I add material to an existing memorial?
I have been looking for a couple of graves belonging to a couple of girls I went to school with who died rather young. I have found their parents graves but after three and a half graveyards I have yet to find theirs. I did however find the third sister of the two who is now 15 but she has no idea where they are since she was only a 2 year old when they died and has only vague memories of everything from then.
A lot of information on Find a Grave is wrong. I have told many people to do their research and correct their records. One of them was my own relative and have never met.
Hello, great content. I'm trying find my grandpa, according to my mom, aunts and grandma he was a WW2 veteran PIB Commander, but they tend to stretch the truth often which is why I can't say for sure if he really held that position/title during his time in the military, with certainty though he did serve in WW2 because I remember a number of solders attended his funeral and covered his coffin with a beautiful american flag which they folded nicely and gave to my mom the youngest of 3 sisters. I've searched and searched and searched yes even on "find a grave" and I keep getting matched to a person with almost the exact identity (or at least from my knowledge of his identity) as my grandpa but this other person is in Texas resided there until his passing Rip. So I think that's weird because I know for sure my grandpa is burried in East Los Angeles CA, that's where we are from, I've looked for information directly from the cemetery in E.LA and there seems to be no trace of my grandpa there. I'm so confused, what can I do?
If you know which cemetery in the Los Angeles are he is buried, you might try calling them. Also look at this link. www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Los_Angeles_County,_California_Genealogy#Cemeteries
Not buried in a Cemetery... Is there a way to setup a memorial on Find A Grave for a family that are buried on a private family farm? My 2nd great grandparents had three of their children buried on a farm that they once owned. I have pictures of the children headstones.
That's a good question. You could set up a new cemetery for that private family farm, but you might want to get permission from the family first as this will be made public and people might want to visit.
I can’t tell you the ins and out of how it was done, but I have seen several listings for people who do not actually have graves, such as if they were cremated. There definitely is a way to list someone who is not in an actual cemetery. Unfortunately this leaves lots of room for incorrect info as well.
When I volunteered to be a photographer I got over 1000 request immediately. Some randoms that could have easily been done, but then a whole cemetery. It was a bit much.
Very helpful. I am grateful to you for sharing this important information. When I am photographing gravesites, how do I document words or numbers which are indecipherable?
Thanks. It's hard sometimes. You can also check the owner/office of the cemetery (if there is one) and or the local historical or genealogical society. Sometimes they have gone to local cemeteries and transcribed everything. If you find one that did it many years ago, it might have been more legible then. Otherwise, use a ? for the letters you can't read. This will cause the algorithms to use a wildcard in place of the ? character.
I have been a contributor to Find-a-grave for over 12 yrs & just learned something this week. There has never been any notification if someone makes a suggestion and if you don't accept or decline it within 21 days, it is automatically posted as true. I learned this because someone had changed the name of my 3x ggm & added a maiden name that I believe is incorrect. I have changed it back & added my sources in the bio as to what I did & why. Is there a better way to handle something like this?
Check your Account Settings -> Notification Settings -> Memorial Updates in regards to how you should be notified of suggestions. Check you spam settings in your email to ensure notification emails don’t end up in a junk folder. Periodically check Suggested Edits -> Suggestions for Me -> Accepted Possibly sort by “Processed” and look for any activity with your memorials.
@@kevinkendall2182 All notifications except the last are checked. The first one is "Memorial updates: Email me about memorial transfers, suggested edits, suggested merges, etc." I receive most of these types of notices but not the Suggested Edits. I recently asked for & rec'd a first cousin's memorial & that of a ggm ... & have email to show that it was done. The incident above was several yrs ago so would be gone from spam by now if hat were the case. I get a report of what's in spam each day for the 24 hrs prior. I then know to check if there's something I want. I also check Junk folder regularly. It was only by checking "Suggested Edits Accepted" that I found it. I contributed lots of photos of tombstones of people I didn't know just because their name was possibly family or the stone was interesting. I don't mind that those "slip through." Thank you for the info but, unfortunately, it doesn't really explain my problem. I didn't do anything much for a while so didn't know this could happen until recently. Everyone needs a break once in a while. I still received notices about some things during my "time off."
I do like find a grave too. I want to go and serve in any cemetery to honor their love ones. Dad taught me a good lesson to be careful when I go out and take pictures of random people’s graves in any cemetery. Some cemeteries do let volunteers photograph any headstone. Some cemeteries don’t. If people don’t like their relatives grave pictures posted on the memorials on find a grave, I might ask them a question. If find a grave is owned by ancestry, can the people contact ancestry and ask them to shut down the find a grave website so they wouldn’t complain or get agitated about their business and grave pictures posted on the memorials by someone else anymore? That might be an option.
A local church will not allow any photos of plaques in the Columbarium to be posted on a public website. It would only be a name and dates plus how would they know or what could they do? Anyway, does happen. As for their privacy violation claim, anyone walking in the church sees the plaques.
Someone has confused John Sowers of Douglas County IL with John Sowers of Coles County. I have told find a grave of the error but it has not been changed. How do I get this corrected?
I would start with this links below. You can also ask to take over and manage the memorial. If the current owner does not respond (they may have died or don't care anymore), F.A.G. will transfer it to you. If all else fails, contact Ancestry (they own Find A Grave). Suggest edits here support.findagrave.com/s/article/Suggest-Edits#:~:text=Go%20to%20the%20memorial%20on,the%20manager%20of%20that%20memorial. Request to manage a memorial support.findagrave.com/s/article/Request-to-Manage
Constance, what do you do if your relatives lived in a closed document state like Colorado. I can't afford to spend $60 or more for each of my relatives documents.
Go look for them on FamilySearch. Sometimes they have them. Look to city directories, yearbooks, land records, wills, to work around the restrictions. Check state and local archives and libraries too. Newspapers! There are a lot of places you can go to find other records. Even tax records. Think about the events you’re trying to replace, like birth marriage and death. Find other records to help answer those questions. You don’t have to have a birth or death certificate for every person in your family tree. While it would be nice, there are lots of ways to figure it out.
Some graves only list a last name. It's difficult to know if it's the right individual just having a last name, especially in NY or California. Sometimes dates help, but you'd be surprised how many die in same month and year....
Question to Constance: I purchased a gravestone as part of pre-planning, but I hope to live another 20 years or so. Is it okay to create a memorial, even though I am still living?
When I leave a flower, I try and leave my relationship to the person for whom I am leaving a flower. It also helps other researchers who may be looking for relatives. It helps them know you are related and not just a friend or someone who leaves flowers on random memorials.
Yes. Me too. Thanks for sharing.
I actually do that too!
If I was visiting a grave with no information, but I had info. on that person, I would leave all that I had on them, in the leave a flower section.
@@patricialenaburg6553 better to suggest edits to the memorial than to just leave it as a flower message.
@@roycehostetler96 That would be wonderful, if it worked all the time. There have been times it didn't work.
Note of caution on Find-a-Grave. Photos of old limestone graves are sometimes heavily covered in lichens that contribute to a partially dissolved facing. A marker dated 1733 could in fact be 1738. Also, some markers have been replaced in recent years by a family's enthusiastic re-discovery and newfound interest in genealogy. They don't always get it correct. Always verify your work.
So true
Yes, I had a difficult time finding an ancestor's marker, only to find his name had been mis-transcribed because "T" started looking like "F."
I actually found a joint headstone where the wife and husband's last names were transcribed differently. It's so important to suggest corrections when you have verified information to contribute.
One thing to remember when photographing tombstones is lighting. I always take a spray bottle of plain water to squirt on the lettering on the tombstone. This brings out the lettering in the picture. Also, always look on backs of tombstones. In my case my parents are buried on one side and my grandparents are buried on the other. Some times you can find additional information on the backside of tombstones.
YES!
Also, wipe away any dirt or leaves. I've seen so many people take pictures of headstones, but some part of the name was covered by dirt etc when you would easily wipe it off and have a much clearer usable picture.
Thanks Constance for another great and helpful video! My son and I are contributors on Find-a-Grave too, we usually go out one or two Saturdays a month and print out the photo requests in our area. It’s a lot of fun and gives him and I some bonding time as well! I also enjoy using the transcription feature on their site and helping out that way as well.
You’re awesome. It’s a great service you’re providing. For all of us who use FindAGrave, we thank volunteers like you! 👏👏👏👏
When I started using findagrave there were about 500 thousand listings. Where my family are from there were several ardent findagrave transcribers, so I found a lot of family listings. I looked for cemetery transcription's and added entire listings to findagrave.
Just yesterday I found a distant relative and saw she is showing in-correct parents. I added her death certificate and obituary. The person who controls the listing has been notified and hopefully a correction will be made.
I always read the obits if there is one.
Just a word of caution. Not all info that volunteers have contributed is accurate. This is a good jumping off point, however, for further research. I recently discovered a tombstone attributed to one cemetery was actually in a different cemetery in the same town.
So very true.
Great video, Constance. Thanks for sharing. I like to contribute by adding exact dates and places of births and deaths when only the years are listed. I also corrected a few errors. Another thing I do is link people to their parents so that all of the siblings become grouped as a family. I haven't tried the virtual cemeteries or left flowers yet and I now understand their value.
Yes... leaving flowers not only helps you but helps you make connections with others.
Great tips! I never understood the Virtual Cemetery link before but now I realize that's a really helpful tool to have information organized in a handy way. One comment about uploading from a cemetery. I spent some time in a cemetery three-days-drive from my home this past summer. Managed to photograph and upload requested photos on two or three graves before my phone died. So, be mindful of power constraints. You can always photograph and upload later. The other thing is I never heard back from any of the people who had requested photos. I don't need that, (maybe they aren't interested anymore for many reasons) but I think if someone fulfills a request I might make, I would try to send out a Thank You right away!
Interesting thought about the phone battery. I'll keep that in mind. Re: the response from photo requests, it might be that they did not get the notification... or they may have passed away. Just a thought.
Also know your storage on device before you go! I went with my parents and thought I had enough room, but ended up loosing several because my phone was full and about ten of my last photos were just white!
I had a stick and tried to take some time to save some and delete some, but that’s a time consuming process especially when you’re out in a remote location at a cemetery.
Some family had been photographed before, but none of the photos for that cemetery had gps data. Also the records are a “map” and there are two grave markers, one probably a direct ancestor, that are just initials…on the map it’s initials for first and middle name and does give the complete surname but that’s it.
My next project is to verify that no other records exist someplace else, verifying the plot info. Death certificates only indicated cemetery name.
This happens frequently…they may have forgotten all about the request and then ignored the reply or the FAG notice could have gone to spam and never seen. I recently got a reply one year after I had replied. The ball is in their court….I don’t fret about it…I did my part. I certainly Never take someone’s information as Fact. I’ve seen too much sloppy research or Assumptions. Verify Always with your own research of Documents that you yourself see!
I just watched this. I have used findagrave often but never knew about virtual cemeteries so immediately created one. Just looking at one cemetery I discovered the recent death of a family member that I was unaware of and the location of several graves I hadn’t known before. Thank you for passing your knowledge on to us.
Excellent Judy.
Me, too! Never knew what a virtual cemetery was! Thanks!
Thanks so very much. I arrived 60 years later, looking for my sister's grave. Your tip to use the cemetery and only her last name did the trick, even though her full name did pop up as the only result.
Wonderful!
Thanks Conney, I have been using Finda a Grave for several years now, mainly correcting or adding information, using the EDIT feature. I enjoy joining family up. I learnt so much today, that I will now take on board next time.
When I first started genealogy, FAG was my major source of finding my people. When a profile is started, who does the linked people? And thank you to those who put the plot numbers. Family plots make it much easier to determine who's family, if not the relationships.
Anyone can add family members by clicking the edit button. Perhaps I should do a video on that question.
Actually I thought the relationship is approved by the site's manager?
For plot information contact cemetary or funeral home. I received detailed directions to my grandfather's grave in a large cemetary before I visited.
I love findagrave and the app. I recently discovered that my ggreat-grandfather had all but one of his children buried in his plot but they only have one large stone for all of them. We have been leaving actual flowers for him for many years not knowing about the others so I added that information and linked his other son and my grandmother to him.
Excellent. I love Find A Grave.
Thank you spreading the word about this important tool. Just in passing, I noticed your Flora Henley married a Coltrane. Coltrane is one of my allied lines also in Randolph County. My ancestors were McDaniels and Clarks. Thanks for all videos!
Well we’re likely cousins then. Thanks for the nice note Richard.
Thank you for your great videos. There's always so much to learn.
I found FAG helps me find missing children. Those that were born & died between census.
The attached obituaries can add so much info.
I'm starting a virtual cemetery & will be adding flowers to all inquiries. 👍 💞
Learn about the Mortality schedules. I see a lot of children who died too young in Mortality Schedules.
This was a good tutorial, learned more about Find A Grave which will be helpful as I research the Dudleys of Connecticut for a family friend. The Virtual Cemetery is something I didn't understand and it sounds like a great place to attach memorials.
My friend only knew of about 100 family members, so I dug into this and found 962 members and counting. Learning quite a bit about doing researching this family as they came from England in 1639 and settled in Guilford, CT. I'm having such a great time working on this family, finding all the "goodies" on individuals.
Isn’t it fun. 😀
Thank you for the tutorial. Spent 2021 trying to navigate ancestry, family tree, find a grave and newspapers websites. This is very helpful advice. I can hardly wait to start my own virtual graveyard.
Glad it was helpful! Yes, virtual graveyards are very handy.
My grandmother was buried in an unmarked grave in Maine in 1928. Dads family didnt have enough money for a headstone apparently. Proving really hard to find her location.
Yeah... short of a DNA test, you may never find her.
If she’s in a cemetery, the cemetery records should show her plot on their map/list. Many times, the “empty plots” we see are not really empty at all.
Thank you for this! Great tips for beginners, and great reminders for more seasoned genealogists. Love the ability to 'create' virtual cemeteries to group generations and extended family!
Yes I like the virtual cemeteries too. Thanks for the comment!
Are these self-created virtual cemeteries viewable to the public?
@@SnowFrogge You may select the privacy settings.
THANK YOU for that. I LOVE this site. NOW I'm going to help others and photo in the cemeteries near me! LOVE that I can make my own cemetery too.
I am a volunteer photographer and historian for Find-a-Grave. Also, sometimes you will come across a military's person who has to gravestones. But is buried in two different places. One may of been for his limb and later one for himself.
Humm... Or perhaps it's just a memorial marker close to the family? Thanks for supporting Genealogy TV! I do appreciate it.
One of my great aunts daughters has 2 burial locations. One in Michigan & one in a National Cemetery in Florida. I knew they lived in Michigan.
With more research, I discovered they wintered in Florida. Her husband died in Florida & was buried there. She became ill & returned home where her mother cared for her. When she died she was buried in the family plot in Michigan. Her name on the plate with her husband in Florida is just a marker.
Thank you! I had no idea that you could create your own virtual cemeteries, that will be awesome
I think virtual cemeteries is one of the best kept secrets on Find A Grave
One of the things I do (which is related to one of the things you do) is look in the cemetery for others with the same name, especially if I am missing a spouse or a young child. I have found spouses, second spouse, young children, parents, married children that way. Because you are right, if there are people with the same last name in a cemetery, there is a good chance they are related.
It definitely is a good habit to get into, as you have learned.
Also there is a good chance they’re all buried together. 😀
Thank you. I did not know about virtual cemeteries!
Pretty cool Huh?
Thanks so much for posting this video. It was *very* helpful.
Thank you. Your tips will be a game changer for me.
Thank you for all you do! You’re terrific! 💐
Ah! You made my day. Thanks. Have a great weekend.
Thank you, Connie!
In 2013, I discovered that a local man in Vermilion County, IL had done every cemetery in his county, complete with pictures of headstones. I saw my paternal grandmother's headstone, which I had never seen before. I also found out that is not allowed at national cemeteries, unless they authorize it.
Great tips…as always!
Glad you like them!
Great tips. Thank you. I signed up a while back and have a couple virtual cemeteries. I love your tip about leaving a flower.
Glad it was helpful!
Very informative b. Can’t wait to use the app. Once home it was a lot of work to do the transfers
I started contributing to the site not too long ago. I had been searching for my great uncles and a great aunt but they hadn't been connected to my grandpa at all. So I made a memorial for him with a grave photo and once I found his parents who were connected to his siblings I requested the author of their memorials attach them together. I've been adding in ones for my dad and his siblings too. Once the weather cools a bit I plan to go back to the cemetery and do some photos of the long list of requests that are on the site for that graveyard.
The virtual cemetery is a great feature, I've accumulated quite a lot of folks in there LOL
Great video, thanks for the tips. I definitely need a virtual cemetery or two.
Any time!
Thank you for the tips!
Thank you for the tips. I have been a Find-A-Grave user for a long time and therefore figured a few things out over the years (it’s a hobby I pick up and put down periodically). I was wondering about how to best use some of the features though and found your video. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos as a new subscriber.
Fabulous. Thanks for subscribing. I think you’ll find that research techniques and strategies are my jam, welcome aboard.
Wow, great tips! Thanks for sharing this. Terrific videos!
Thank you. 😀
never underestimate the power of photos---if you have a family photo, add them to the find a grave memorial for that person. Just nice to connect a face to an ancestor, especially the old photos, or the military photos.
Great tips, thank you!
Ah... thanks Kim!
I never knew what the virtual cemetery was about until now - thanks again Connie!
I love them.
All good tips
Great tips
When I find a person I always check that Cemetery to see If I can find addition members in this same cemetery.
My little, rural NH town has eight cemeteries, and one of our computer-savvy trustees has taken the time to compile a complete database of all burials as well as creating computerized maps of all eight yards. A number of graves have no monument or marker so the locations are not always exact. This information is available in the town library.
Nice!
After watching your video, I started an account on Find a Grave. I started going to local cemeteries trying to find requested stones. It’s tougher then you would think. Most of old stones are washed away or covered on moss. I’ve watched other videos on touching / cleaning stones. Unfortunately I can’t find any of my relatives on Find a grave, unless it was entered in by someone else. Great videos.
Thanks. I’ve had the same experience running around cemeteries trying to find people. Most the cemeteries around here already been photographed that have tombstone’s. Some of the people that are being asked for, no longer have tombstone’s.
I've noticed that many photos requested are for older burials. Most of the time, those graves are lost, either because the stone has sunk underground, been removed, or never existed.
Great bounus tip and other helpful info. I subbed. 😁
Thank you
Great tips! Keep up the great work.
Thanks Deb.
I came across your vidio this week and I want to say thanks. I had not been able to find any information on my great-grandma on my mother's side. I knew that she died young as my grandma told me she died when she was a little girl. With this vidio I used things you said and found her death certificate. Her last nam was spelt wrong but because it had my great grandfather's name and address on it I knew it was her. Thanks for your help and vidio. By the way my maiden name is also Knox.
Thanks for the compliments Ms. Knox.
Very good info thank you
Excelent vídeo. Thanks and congratulations!
Thank you
I just love find a grave . It’s been very helpful for my research. That’s a great idea to add information. TFS another great video.
You are so welcome. Thanks for the nice words.
How did you register? I have been unable to do so.
@@brittonbell My apologies for not seeing your message befor. I became a member . I’m now also a volunteer.
@@shondra6 It's been worked out. TY
Great tips!
Thank you! Good info. I did not know you could create a virtual family cemetery! Ü
Yes you can!
LOL - I was just researching Kansas Henley's yesterday! Trying to find a link to my main tree from a DNA cousin. Thanks for the suggestion to leave flowers in Findagrave.
Ah yes that’s one of my favorite tricks. Those Henley’s are probably Quakers. You might look for a Quaker records in Kansas.
Thanks so much for this information. I can see where this tool is going to be very helpful with my research. Love your videos.
Thanks for watching!
Very helpful! Just got back from my first walk today. Learned a lot already for the next time I go out!!
Fantastic!
I love the idea of contributing information, especially for my parents, in-laws, and other family members.
Very good info..thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you very much for the video, it was very well done and informational. On another note.
I'm having a serious problem with other Find A Grave members who are constantly taking my memorial contributions and making them their own. How is it that this can happen?
Perhaps Find A Grave can create something within the program to protect those of us who work diligently to contribute memorials only to find that it is being stolen from you.
Any suggestions wold be so greatly appreciated as this happens all the time and I am running out of ideas.
Thank you
Glenda, you should be getting notification of someone requesting the memorial. I'm wondering if you're not getting these notifications (turned off on FaG or blocked by your email settings). Here is an article with the support email address. support.findagrave.com/s/article/Request-to-Manage
@@GenealogyTV - Thank you very much. I will research this and see if it is something on my end. Also. I do not have any options on FaG Cemetery. It only gives me options of cremation, buried at sea, etc. Most of the time it is neither one of them, It is because the, "Burial Details are Unknown." However, I have to make a choice or I cannot go any further with the Bio.. Again, thank you for any information you can give me to help me better understand how FaG works.
Tip #6: the information listed may be completely wrong. When I got started, I assumed somehow the info had been checked against cemetery records or something, not that some random person maybe just made a mistake or flat out made a post in bad faith. I regard the site as a hint only. I know people who have even contacted the original poster to say they are wrong and they have proof. Yet the original poster will refuse to change anything. And once posted, only the original poster can make a correction. The site itself refuses to help.
You can get the memorial transferred to you if they don't respond. Sometimes they have passed away and it is abandoned.
Thank you. That was extremely useful.
Thanks Benjamin.
I believe that if you add a photograph to a public website, it's basically up for grabs. If you don't like that then don't post it.
Agreed
It takes time and sometimes cost (petrol) to take photos so it’s a nice courtesy to return the favour by acknowledging the person who took the photo when you do use a photo elsewhere. Not all photo volunteers use their name when posting online but some do.
@@mdestacpoole I always acknowledge and credit the volunteer who took the photo if I use it, plus if someone fulfills a photo request for me I send them a thank you message.
Thankyou, very interesting and useful 👍
Thanks
I made a virtual cemetery on my Great Aunt, who died at about two years old in Oklahoma, I went back to visit it over the years, and someone had deleted my Aunt's information and put my Great Grandmothers name down for being buried there in that cemetery, it would be her Grandmother. There was a grave number on it, but my my Great Grandmother died in Texas, many years before my Grandmother moved to Oklahoma, where this virtual cemetery was made by me. The lady who managed this cemetery, at the time I had set up this virtual cemetery, had died, but someone changed this information, using the same lady who died, being the manager of this cemetery as the manager of this grave. How can someone delete your information , where your the manager, and change things when the original manager is dead? You can't go back, and ask the original manager anything, they still have her as a manager, and she is not on this earth anymore. I know it's confusing, but it's hard to explain.
That's a really good question. I'm not sure. Have you tried the "Suggest Edits" form near the top, under the Memorial ID? It might go to the staff at Ancestry (since they own FindAGrave). You can also contact Find A Grave at www.findagrave.com/contact
What if you haven't seen your dad since 1996, though he was raised in Puerto Rico but in 96 he lived in Charlotte, NC, haven't heard anything from him since, how would I know where he is if he died etc? Ancestry just has one hint and it's about when he lived in NJ between 89-90
Oh, this is GREAT!!! Thank you very much.
My pleasure. Thanks for your support Mary.
I enjoy contributing but waiting for the weather to cool down here in SC
Great content. Thank you very much.
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the comment.
someone added my 9th great grandpa on find a grave. I looked at the records from the city, county clerk's office in Ekfrid, Ontario. that particular cemetery says the first burial in Lotan cemetery was in 1850, 126 years after my 9th great grandpa was allegedly buried there. it's so frustrating. his son and daughter in law, my 8th great grands are buried on the farm they had in NY state, and others have said they're in some family cemetery. there are two graves with those names on them, but they're both from more than a century later.
Wow. Didn't know about the app. I've been taking pics the hard way. lol
😊
One thing about doing photography in a cemetery. You might have to get permission from the admin of the cemetery. I tried to take some photos of relative headstones and their security escorted me to the office to explain what I was doing. I was "granted" permission in this case but was told not to take photos of other headstones etc. Here in Calif. Silicon Valley some folks get a little paranoid about this.
Yes, seems to be more common place these days.
Huh.....good tips! Thanks!
You bet!
I am from Denmark and enjoy your videos. Is it me or is there no graves listes from here?
I have one question though.
You said that you can voulenteer, but is there some rules I need to follow before taking pictures of others graves?
Official rules, no. But I would suggest a couple of things... Take a small broom or rush to dust off dirt. A pair of grass clippers too, to cut away grass that is covering tombstones. Sometimes people take pictures and grass covers the words. Also, take a wide shot of the area showing what tombstones are around the featured tombstone.... because family is often buried next to the featured headstone. Get a picture of the entrance to the cemetery. Use the Find-A-Grave app... and allow it to capture your location. You can take the picture and fill in the form while in the cemetery and it will add the GPS coordinates in the app. Take a selfie of you volunteering and promote it on social media. Thanks for the great question. Also, my ancestry is from Denmark! :) Thanks for watching Genealogy TV!
@@GenealogyTV I purposely DON'T use apps on my Apple 6s due to hacking stuff but MAY get this one, since you have been using the APP how many times has it changed & updated? I find such annoying
Understood
Great tips! You're the best!!!
Glad you like them!
Super video and always clear information, thank you. Is there a Spanish 'Find a grave' equivalent or same site ?
I’m not sure. Google Translate might help.
Thanks for sharing all this wonderful information. My question is, why is it important to save the memorial ID number? What would I use this for? Thanks!!
If you need to go back to that record on Find a Grave later on, you can search by that ID number. Also, someone who may inherit your records, could also find it.
I have noticed more and more people are posting death certificates and obituaries on Find-A-Grave as pictures, but there is no source information. How do you handle that?
I typically I reach out to the contributor (link in FindAGrave) and ask them for the source. Sometime it takes a while to get a response. In the meantime, check FamilySearch.org to see if the have it.
I sometimes add corrected or additional info in the flower message if the manager won’t respond to an edit request or has the ‘you can’t email me’ message. At least you help other researchers who will see the flower.
Great idea.
What do I do if the diseased is not in a cemetary but an old family plot. Will the app let you enter longitude and latityde ? I found the family plot of the 1st Baltimore sheriff but it's next to a hospital & community college
You know, that is a great question. I don't know. I'll have to try it sometime. If you figure it out, let me know.
findagrave.com volunteer work landed me a job that I wasn't looking for and didn't even apply for, I just kinda fell into it!
Nice!
Thanks mate
Thank you for this video! So helpful!
Two questions: 1-Will other researchers see my virtual cemetery while searching around? 2-If I create a contributing account, can I add material to an existing memorial?
1. No 2. Yes
I have been looking for a couple of graves belonging to a couple of girls I went to school with who died rather young. I have found their parents graves but after three and a half graveyards I have yet to find theirs. I did however find the third sister of the two who is now 15 but she has no idea where they are since she was only a 2 year old when they died and has only vague memories of everything from then.
Since the majority of people are cremated these days, you may have better luck looking in obituaries.
A lot of information on Find a Grave is wrong. I have told many people to do their research and correct their records. One of them was my own relative and have never met.
Hello, great content.
I'm trying find my grandpa, according to my mom, aunts and grandma he was a WW2 veteran PIB Commander, but they tend to stretch the truth often which is why I can't say for sure if he really held that position/title during his time in the military, with certainty though he did serve in WW2 because I remember a number of solders attended his funeral and covered his coffin with a beautiful american flag which they folded nicely and gave to my mom the youngest of 3 sisters. I've searched and searched and searched yes even on "find a grave" and I keep getting matched to a person with almost the exact identity (or at least from my knowledge of his identity) as my grandpa but this other person is in Texas resided there until his passing Rip. So I think that's weird because I know for sure my grandpa is burried in East Los Angeles CA, that's where we are from, I've looked for information directly from the cemetery in E.LA and there seems to be no trace of my grandpa there. I'm so confused, what can I do?
If you know which cemetery in the Los Angeles are he is buried, you might try calling them. Also look at this link. www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Los_Angeles_County,_California_Genealogy#Cemeteries
Interesting
I don't find the app as useful though and I will usually instead just use the browser instead.
Not buried in a Cemetery... Is there a way to setup a memorial on Find A Grave for a family that are buried on a private family farm? My 2nd great grandparents had three of their children buried on a farm that they once owned. I have pictures of the children headstones.
That's a good question. You could set up a new cemetery for that private family farm, but you might want to get permission from the family first as this will be made public and people might want to visit.
I can’t tell you the ins and out of how it was done, but I have seen several listings for people who do not actually have graves, such as if they were cremated. There definitely is a way to list someone who is not in an actual cemetery. Unfortunately this leaves lots of room for incorrect info as well.
When I volunteered to be a photographer I got over 1000 request immediately. Some randoms that could have easily been done, but then a whole cemetery. It was a bit much.
That is a little ridiculous.
@@GenealogyTV It worked out as I unsubscribed to the requests and then I just go and look for the ones that are requested that I can do.
Very helpful. I am grateful to you for sharing this important information. When I am photographing gravesites, how do I document words or numbers which are indecipherable?
Thanks. It's hard sometimes. You can also check the owner/office of the cemetery (if there is one) and or the local historical or genealogical society. Sometimes they have gone to local cemeteries and transcribed everything. If you find one that did it many years ago, it might have been more legible then. Otherwise, use a ? for the letters you can't read. This will cause the algorithms to use a wildcard in place of the ? character.
I have been a contributor to Find-a-grave for over 12 yrs & just learned something this week. There has never been any notification if someone makes a suggestion and if you don't accept or decline it within 21 days, it is automatically posted as true. I learned this because someone had changed the name of my 3x ggm & added a maiden name that I believe is incorrect. I have changed it back & added my sources in the bio as to what I did & why. Is there a better way to handle something like this?
Check your Account Settings -> Notification Settings -> Memorial Updates
in regards to how you should be notified of suggestions.
Check you spam settings in your email to ensure notification emails don’t end up in a junk folder.
Periodically check Suggested Edits -> Suggestions for Me -> Accepted
Possibly sort by “Processed” and look for any activity with your memorials.
@@kevinkendall2182 All notifications except the last are checked. The first one is "Memorial updates: Email me about memorial transfers, suggested edits, suggested merges, etc." I receive most of these types of notices but not the Suggested Edits. I recently asked for & rec'd a first cousin's memorial & that of a ggm ... & have email to show that it was done. The incident above was several yrs ago so would be gone from spam by now if hat were the case. I get a report of what's in spam each day for the 24 hrs prior. I then know to check if there's something I want. I also check Junk folder regularly.
It was only by checking "Suggested Edits Accepted" that I found it. I contributed lots of photos of tombstones of people I didn't know just because their name was possibly family or the stone was interesting. I don't mind that those "slip through."
Thank you for the info but, unfortunately, it doesn't really explain my problem. I didn't do anything much for a while so didn't know this could happen until recently. Everyone needs a break once in a while. I still received notices about some things during my "time off."
I can't find the grave of Ursula Nordstrom--famous children's book editor.
I do like find a grave too. I want to go and serve in any cemetery to honor their love ones. Dad taught me a good lesson to be careful when I go out and take pictures of random people’s graves in any cemetery. Some cemeteries do let volunteers photograph any headstone. Some cemeteries don’t. If people don’t like their relatives grave pictures posted on the memorials on find a grave, I might ask them a question. If find a grave is owned by ancestry, can the people contact ancestry and ask them to shut down the find a grave website so they wouldn’t complain or get agitated about their business and grave pictures posted on the memorials by someone else anymore? That might be an option.
Interesting. I've not heard of anyone having issues with photos on Find A Grave.
@@GenealogyTV Me either. No negative comments on the website find a grave.
A local church will not allow any photos of plaques in the Columbarium to be posted on a public website. It would only be a name and dates plus how would they know or what could they do? Anyway, does happen. As for their privacy violation claim, anyone walking in the church sees the plaques.
Someone has confused John Sowers of Douglas County IL with John Sowers of Coles County. I have told find a grave of the error but it has not been changed. How do I get this corrected?
I would start with this links below. You can also ask to take over and manage the memorial. If the current owner does not respond (they may have died or don't care anymore), F.A.G. will transfer it to you. If all else fails, contact Ancestry (they own Find A Grave).
Suggest edits here support.findagrave.com/s/article/Suggest-Edits#:~:text=Go%20to%20the%20memorial%20on,the%20manager%20of%20that%20memorial.
Request to manage a memorial support.findagrave.com/s/article/Request-to-Manage
Constance, what do you do if your relatives lived in a closed document state like Colorado. I can't afford to spend $60 or more for each of my relatives documents.
Go look for them on FamilySearch. Sometimes they have them. Look to city directories, yearbooks, land records, wills, to work around the restrictions. Check state and local archives and libraries too. Newspapers! There are a lot of places you can go to find other records. Even tax records. Think about the events you’re trying to replace, like birth marriage and death. Find other records to help answer those questions. You don’t have to have a birth or death certificate for every person in your family tree. While it would be nice, there are lots of ways to figure it out.
Just because you search by surname in a certain cemetery does not mean you’ll see the memorial unless someone has created it.
Some graves only list a last name. It's difficult to know if it's the right individual just having a last name, especially in NY or California. Sometimes dates help, but you'd be surprised how many die in same month and year....
Question to Constance: I purchased a gravestone as part of pre-planning, but I hope to live another 20 years or so. Is it okay to create a memorial, even though I am still living?
Well that’s new to me. You might ask the cemetery if anyone does that. I don’t see why not. It’s your gravestone.
Genealogy TV - Thank you. I think that is also what drmala2 was referring to in another comment.
@Tryco Slatterus - Thank you. Yes, I had a pre-need headstone installed.
Well I learn something everyday. Thank you both.
How do you make find a grave on your android a larger screen?
I use Find-A-Grave.
Its very useful, but half of my families graves were not created.
You can always request a photograph, add them yourself, or it might be that they are missing.