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Old 08-11-2014, 02:58 PM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
26,634 posts, read 28,419,191 times
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If anyone outside of New England ever comes here and spends any time there must be hundreds--or more-- of really old cemeteries that need to be transcribed into Find A Grave before it's too late. Just go to any Town Hall and ask about the historical society or ask where the old cemeteries are located. If you are already contributing photos to Find A Grave, change your zip code to the town and look at the requests. There are hundreds that never get filled. Even if you could just do a few, it would help. Just set aside a day and it would be a great contribution.

I try to do my few local towns but I feel like I could be the only person doing this. A lot of the stones from the 1600s are already broken or so smooth you can't read them. Many have sunk halfway down into the ground. No one even seems to be doing the early towns settled by the Puritans but so many people all over the country descend from the Puritans.
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Old 08-11-2014, 05:13 PM
 
15,440 posts, read 21,218,755 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by in_newengland View Post
If anyone outside of New England ever comes here and spends any time there must be hundreds--or more-- of really old cemeteries that need to be transcribed into Find A Grave before it's too late.
I agree! Even in the mid-Atlantic region I was always amazed there were lichen-crusted monuments to events that were so old the placement of the monument was older than my state.
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Old 08-11-2014, 05:46 PM
 
10,102 posts, read 19,297,579 times
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I've used Find A Grave to make corrections to some headstones. My Grandfather's birth year was wrong, and my mother's middle initial was incorrect. I honestly don't have the money to have them replaced but it bothers me that their final"datapoints" are incorrect. I figured not many people would visit their actual graves, anyways, since they are in inconvenient locations.

Instead, when I found Find A Grave, I made corrections there. I also made corrections to ancestry.com. I figure anyone who is interested enough to do a background/genealogical search would probably go there, anyways. It give me comfort to know the records are finally set straight. BTW, I wasn't the one who authorized the erroneous headstones to begin with, and the receipts, paperwork, etc, are long lost so there's no way I could get a correction without paying all over again.
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Old 08-12-2014, 12:25 AM
 
366 posts, read 489,663 times
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Quote:
I have not come across any cemetery staff who are suspicious of Find A Grave - in fact, I have come across several who actively support it.
You can ask the caretakers at Park Lawn Cemetery in St Louis how they feel about people from Find-A-Grave. Very nice people and very helpful as long as you are NOT affiliated with Find-A-Grave and are making inquiry about your own relatives. As of July 21st, they were not fans there of. Nor were 4 of the 6 other cemeteries I visited. Same lines of inquiry: are you from Find-A-Grave?

Quote:
That's odd. How does someone "make money from Find-A-Grave"?
I have no idea. I thought is was expressly forbidden to ask for a fee for content. I know I volunteer and I do not use staff for the requests because I am familiar with our local cemeteries.
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Old 08-12-2014, 04:46 PM
 
Location: OH>IL>CO>CT
7,466 posts, read 13,454,519 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by usagisan View Post
You can ask the caretakers at Park Lawn Cemetery in St Louis how they feel about people from Find-A-Grave. Very nice people and very helpful as long as you are NOT affiliated with Find-A-Grave and are making inquiry about your own relatives. As of July 21st, they were not fans there of. Nor were 4 of the 6 other cemeteries I visited. Same lines of inquiry: are you from Find-A-Grave?



I have no idea. I thought is was expressly forbidden to ask for a fee for content. I know I volunteer and I do not use staff for the requests because I am familiar with our local cemeteries.

Given that nobody(except maybe the people who administer the website) is "from" Find-A-Grave, what is it that these caretakers object to ?
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Old 08-12-2014, 06:14 PM
 
Location: North Carolina
10,194 posts, read 17,729,493 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by usagisan View Post
You can ask the caretakers at Park Lawn Cemetery in St Louis how they feel about people from Find-A-Grave. Very nice people and very helpful as long as you are NOT affiliated with Find-A-Grave and are making inquiry about your own relatives. As of July 21st, they were not fans there of. Nor were 4 of the 6 other cemeteries I visited. Same lines of inquiry: are you from Find-A-Grave?
I'm not saying there are no cemetery staff who don't like Find A Grave. I'm just saying that in my experience, it does not seem to be a widespread or standard attitude.

In any case, if I am ever asked if I'm from Find A Grave, I can honestly say that I am not. That doesn't mean I won't post the information I find on Find A Grave but doing so doesn't mean I'm "from" Find A Grave.
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Old 08-12-2014, 06:19 PM
 
1,097 posts, read 2,038,269 times
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I have used it, and also emailed documented info to the poster to add, which they did.

I have done it overseas, for a website a friend created & still runs -- she did it for years B4 the internet. No one ever bothered anyone, but that was not in the US, and her "hoards" of volunteers were many 5 at one time - - - any problems she ran into were ultimately a bit political in nature, and the fact that some gravesites were on private property.
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