In April 2017 I started working on my family tree, searching local cemeteries and seeing many familiar names. It quickly turned into an obsession and after 3 years I took my family tree from about 500 people to over 7000 people. One of the primary research tools used was Find a Grave.

Having just completed the 5th round of working on my family genealogy I've decided to take some time off, so I will not be logging into Find a Grave as often. I will attempt to complete BIO requests as they are received, but regular edits may take the 21 day auto approval process. Thanks for your patience.

So many volunteers gave freely of their time to create these memorials that had helped me do my research. I felt compelled to give back and started taking pictures at a local cemetery, which looked huge and had about 4800 memorials when I was done processing the pictures. From there I moved on other local cemeteries and some further away from my home in Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada.

On Jan. 3, 2022 Find a Grave, at my request, transferred all non-family memorials to '8'.
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Maintenance/Transfer of Memorials:

Any memorial I manage is a relative… some close… some more distant. I would like to make contact with those that are interested in sharing information.
I would like to manage family memorials, but will consider a transfer to another family member upon proof of relationship to the person in the memorial.
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Obituaries/BIO Information:

As a memorial manager I am morally and legally responsible for the content of the memorials under my management and reserve the right to refuse an edit where it would conflict with this. If you feel your edit should be accepted, than please submit to Find A Grave for their review. 9 Dec 2021

In 2018 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled an obituary is a copyrighted item and ownership belongs to the person who wrote it (the family, not the funeral home). This means if you wrote your mother's obituary the copyright is in effect for 50 years after your death. Because no one can be sure whom owns the copyright or if they died 50 years ago, I will not add an obituary as it is written in a newspaper or funeral home notice (regardless if you are the copyright holder - too hard to prove).

Find a Grave policy is not to mention living family members in an obituary. If the named individuals appear like they could be living, I will not add it.

An obituary can be rewritten in your words to be post by me. Alternatively a reference to where the obituary can be found is acceptable (Newspaper, page, date).
------------------------------------------

Conflicting Edit Requests

It is up to you to provide proof of wrong/correct information.
------------------------------------------

Privacy Issues:

Personal information for a living person on a grave marker will be covered or photo edited to remove it for privacy. Today most memorial makers will advise against putting this type of data on a marker. Most provinces/states have privacy laws.
------------------------------------------
GPS Coordinates:

The purpose of GPS is to get you close to the marker. Since my camera is attaching the GPS coordinates to the picture, the location will be where I'm standing. Given commercial GPS accuracy is about 10 to 20+ feet radius, I will reject any change request within that distance. Please use a distance calculator to check.
------------------------------------------
Pictures:
My pictures are free to use, but please give me credit.

Robert Bell (Valleyboy13)

In April 2017 I started working on my family tree, searching local cemeteries and seeing many familiar names. It quickly turned into an obsession and after 3 years I took my family tree from about 500 people to over 7000 people. One of the primary research tools used was Find a Grave.

Having just completed the 5th round of working on my family genealogy I've decided to take some time off, so I will not be logging into Find a Grave as often. I will attempt to complete BIO requests as they are received, but regular edits may take the 21 day auto approval process. Thanks for your patience.

So many volunteers gave freely of their time to create these memorials that had helped me do my research. I felt compelled to give back and started taking pictures at a local cemetery, which looked huge and had about 4800 memorials when I was done processing the pictures. From there I moved on other local cemeteries and some further away from my home in Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada.

On Jan. 3, 2022 Find a Grave, at my request, transferred all non-family memorials to '8'.
------------------------------------------

Maintenance/Transfer of Memorials:

Any memorial I manage is a relative… some close… some more distant. I would like to make contact with those that are interested in sharing information.
I would like to manage family memorials, but will consider a transfer to another family member upon proof of relationship to the person in the memorial.
------------------------------------------

Obituaries/BIO Information:

As a memorial manager I am morally and legally responsible for the content of the memorials under my management and reserve the right to refuse an edit where it would conflict with this. If you feel your edit should be accepted, than please submit to Find A Grave for their review. 9 Dec 2021

In 2018 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled an obituary is a copyrighted item and ownership belongs to the person who wrote it (the family, not the funeral home). This means if you wrote your mother's obituary the copyright is in effect for 50 years after your death. Because no one can be sure whom owns the copyright or if they died 50 years ago, I will not add an obituary as it is written in a newspaper or funeral home notice (regardless if you are the copyright holder - too hard to prove).

Find a Grave policy is not to mention living family members in an obituary. If the named individuals appear like they could be living, I will not add it.

An obituary can be rewritten in your words to be post by me. Alternatively a reference to where the obituary can be found is acceptable (Newspaper, page, date).
------------------------------------------

Conflicting Edit Requests

It is up to you to provide proof of wrong/correct information.
------------------------------------------

Privacy Issues:

Personal information for a living person on a grave marker will be covered or photo edited to remove it for privacy. Today most memorial makers will advise against putting this type of data on a marker. Most provinces/states have privacy laws.
------------------------------------------
GPS Coordinates:

The purpose of GPS is to get you close to the marker. Since my camera is attaching the GPS coordinates to the picture, the location will be where I'm standing. Given commercial GPS accuracy is about 10 to 20+ feet radius, I will reject any change request within that distance. Please use a distance calculator to check.
------------------------------------------
Pictures:
My pictures are free to use, but please give me credit.

Robert Bell (Valleyboy13)