I Love Genealogy and History, research, editing photos, and travel. We finished our book: my mother's memoir about Utah pioneers and the Great Depression. Black Rocks and Cold Wind— Surviving the Good Old Days, by Alaina Newhart.

This probably should be stated in a forum, but as I see it: FindAGrave is mainly a reference source for genealogy. It verifies actual HISTORICAL EVENTS. If you want to add a lot of other unverified info, you really should use another site. If you post a bio, then also post a reference link to that, so we can know that your info has actual vital records sourced.

I was very offended when one person told me to "look it up yourself on Ancestry". Why would I want to go to a different site to look up (and do research on) all the people in the cemeteries? What I'm doing here is adding correct information to FindAGrave.com. It actually made me give up on being a volunteer: hours spent tromping around in the graveyards searching for names, managing photos, editing them, and posting them. I decided to work on my own genealogy, instead.

First, Ancestry.com is loaded with semi-accurate information. AND, it is the best place for sources and organizing your family tree. However, it takes days and even weeks to sort through all the falsehoods people willy-nilly post there. An honorable genealogist doesn't believe anything until he sees a legitimate SOURCE. It's all about being able to PROVE the information. People often don't care for accuracy, so I seldom use any info from other member's trees. If they seem to have reliable sources, then I look at those to be sure.

Second, what we are doing here is DOCUMENTATION, in the form of photos, mostly. I recognize that some names and dates on tombstones could have errors since they are furnished by relatives who may not know exact facts. So, when you know something accurate that can be added, then you need to also add the source such as: family bible, in the possession of "Susie M. Smith" scanned and uploaded to the Smith family website, www.blablabla.com.

As I see it, FindAGrave photos can be a good SOURCE for original information, for sites such as Ancestry.com . . .
IF and ONLY IF, we don't allow the data to be corrupted. Once it's "out there" the snowball effect happens and you can't simply undo the bad information.

I recognize that some people use the site for religious reasons and I have worked on numerous requests, even using snowshoes in the winter in Maine, to find persons who turned out to be children: "little angels" from 1800's. Requests like these are obviously not for the purpose of genealogy, but we honor them when we can.

Thanks for listening.

I Love Genealogy and History, research, editing photos, and travel. We finished our book: my mother's memoir about Utah pioneers and the Great Depression. Black Rocks and Cold Wind— Surviving the Good Old Days, by Alaina Newhart.

This probably should be stated in a forum, but as I see it: FindAGrave is mainly a reference source for genealogy. It verifies actual HISTORICAL EVENTS. If you want to add a lot of other unverified info, you really should use another site. If you post a bio, then also post a reference link to that, so we can know that your info has actual vital records sourced.

I was very offended when one person told me to "look it up yourself on Ancestry". Why would I want to go to a different site to look up (and do research on) all the people in the cemeteries? What I'm doing here is adding correct information to FindAGrave.com. It actually made me give up on being a volunteer: hours spent tromping around in the graveyards searching for names, managing photos, editing them, and posting them. I decided to work on my own genealogy, instead.

First, Ancestry.com is loaded with semi-accurate information. AND, it is the best place for sources and organizing your family tree. However, it takes days and even weeks to sort through all the falsehoods people willy-nilly post there. An honorable genealogist doesn't believe anything until he sees a legitimate SOURCE. It's all about being able to PROVE the information. People often don't care for accuracy, so I seldom use any info from other member's trees. If they seem to have reliable sources, then I look at those to be sure.

Second, what we are doing here is DOCUMENTATION, in the form of photos, mostly. I recognize that some names and dates on tombstones could have errors since they are furnished by relatives who may not know exact facts. So, when you know something accurate that can be added, then you need to also add the source such as: family bible, in the possession of "Susie M. Smith" scanned and uploaded to the Smith family website, www.blablabla.com.

As I see it, FindAGrave photos can be a good SOURCE for original information, for sites such as Ancestry.com . . .
IF and ONLY IF, we don't allow the data to be corrupted. Once it's "out there" the snowball effect happens and you can't simply undo the bad information.

I recognize that some people use the site for religious reasons and I have worked on numerous requests, even using snowshoes in the winter in Maine, to find persons who turned out to be children: "little angels" from 1800's. Requests like these are obviously not for the purpose of genealogy, but we honor them when we can.

Thanks for listening.