Should a category for a cemetery be deleted if there is no evidence for any of the alleged interments

Question

In October, a well-meaning person added the 

category: [[Category:Henrico Parish Church 

Cemetery, Varina, Virginia]] to the profiles 

of Rebecca (Stith) Christian (Stith-65 - a 

person who never existed - the result of 

speculation and ignorance of surviving records 

identifying her as the daughter of Edmund New 

instead of Drury Stith) and her alleged 

husband Thomas (Christian-163).  This was 

based on Find-a-Grave profiles for them.  

It's unlikely that their children would have 

transported their remains to a church in 

Varina, when St. James Parish of Goochland 

existed by the time Thomas and his wife 

Rebecca (actually New-105) passed away.  I 

removed the category from both of their 

profiles last night.

The person who created the profiles for Thomas 

 and Rebecca Christian on Find-a-Grave in the 

"Henrico Parish Cemetery" noted that it was 

based on "Oglesby Research".  They are only 

linked to the daughter who married an Oglesby 

and no other children.  The person also said 

that he worked as a genealogist, but has been 

retired for several years and is letting his 

son manage edits on Find-a-Grave.  He requests 

"documented evidence of the claim" to approve 

edits (which is difficult if a person never 

existed).  However this erstwhile genealogist 

is the one who placed them in a cemetery for 

which there is not any evidence for a single 

person of the 119 or so allegedly interred 

there.  While Thomas and Rebecca are likely 

buried closer to where they resided in 

Goochland, some others lived in what is now 

Chesterfield (such as the Turpins and 

Branches), and were more likely to have been 

buried at a chapel cemetery for Dale Parish - 

if such a cemetery existed (according to J. 

Staunton Moore's The Annals and History of 

Henrico Parish...(1904) per the Vestry Book, 

the chapel south of the James was built a 

considerable time before Dale Parish was 

separated from Henrico).  

If it's possible, could the category for the 

Henrico Parish cemetery be deleted?  What kind 

of documentation is necessary to challenge a 

category's validity?  It's a shame that Find-

a-Grave is so unreliable now, but some seem to 

rely on the existence of an alleged cemetery 

there as factual (even when it's notes 

disclose that there is absolutely no trace of 

the said  cemetery). Moore (1904) lists some 

burials at St. John's on Church Hill, but 

identifies none at the earlier parish chapel 

in Varina.  The existence of this category in 

my opinion contradicts Wiki-Tree's aspiration 

to being a fact-based resource.  

Sincerely,
Brett A. Martin

Comments

Could you edit your post and fix the formatting? Each line is running off the screen, not wrapping, so we can't read the complete paragraph.

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It's hard to read but for me copy and paste works:

In October, a well-meaning person added the category: [[Category:Henrico Parish Church Cemetery, Varina, Virginia]] to the profiles of Rebecca (Stith) Christian (Stith-65 - a person who never existed - the result of speculation and ignorance of surviving records identifying her as the daughter of Edmund New instead of Drury Stith) and her alleged husband Thomas (Christian-163).  This was based on Find-a-Grave profiles for them.  It's unlikely that their children would have transported their remains to a church in Varina, when St. James Parish of Goochland existed by the time Thomas and his wife Rebecca (actually New-105) passed away.  I removed the category from both of their profiles last night.

The person who created the profiles for Thomas and Rebecca Christian on Find-a-Grave in the "Henrico Parish Cemetery" noted that it was based on "Oglesby Research".  They are only linked to the daughter who married an Oglesby and no other children.  The person also said that he worked as a genealogist, but has been retired for several years and is letting his son manage edits on Find-a-Grave.  He requests "documented evidence of the claim" to approve edits (which is difficult if a person never existed).  However this erstwhile genealogist is the one who placed them in a cemetery for which there is not any evidence for a single person of the 119 or so allegedly interred there.  While Thomas and Rebecca are likely buried closer to where they resided in Goochland, some others lived in what is now Chesterfield (such as the Turpins and Branches), and were more likely to have been buried at a chapel cemetery for Dale Parish - if such a cemetery existed (according to J. Staunton Moore's The Annals and History of Henrico Parish...(1904) per the Vestry Book, the chapel south of the James was built a considerable time before Dale Parish was separated from Henrico).  

If it's possible, could the category for the Henrico Parish cemetery be deleted? What kind of documentation is necessary to challenge a category's validity? It's a shame that Find-a-Grave is so unreliable now, but some seem to rely on the existence of an alleged cemetery there as factual (even when it's notes disclose that there is absolutely no trace of the said  cemetery). Moore (1904) lists some burials at St. John's on Church Hill, but identifies none at the earlier parish chapel in Varina.  The existence of this category in my opinion contradicts Wiki-Tree's aspiration to being a fact-based resource.  

Sincerely,

Brett A. Martin

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hi Brett, Find-a-Grave is actually not considered a reliable source pre-1700, and since this family starts in that era, it's questionable whether it should be used as a source.  Also, if they offer no actual sources, then it should be discounted.  Research of so-and-so doesn't qualify unless it's published with full reference given in their citation.

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I do know of even current cemeteries that have never been registered with any jurisdiction or authority. I created one on Findagrave myself years ago. It started with an antebellum burial of the landowner.  

The authorities are just discover it when they needed part of the property for a highway expansion.

We have many hidden old cemeteries around here that were private having falling in disrepair and families died off where tombstones were stolen or buried by weather. Most of the them were for Black souls.

I would not assume nefarious intentions of the profiler. They could have been family.

My adage, Trust but verify. Then dig a little deeper.

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Danielle,

I concur with regards to Find-a-Grave being unreliable that early.  It seems that the alleged "Henrico Parish Cemetery" there exists for folks who wanted to create a profile for an ancestor for whom the burial place is actually unknown.

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Jillaine,

I didn't anticipate it rendering without wrapping text in the original message, but it's double-spaced now.  Thanks for cutting-and-pasting so that I could receive feedback in the meantime.

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Dr. Olmstead,

Thank you for your response.  I have also created cemeteries on Find-A-Grave which aren't "registered with any jurisdiction or authority", but limit them to what I can find for example in a local historical society's cemetery book.  I add only those likely to have been buried there based on death certificates and land or tax records inferring who lived there then.  

I have a 4-great grandfather who died about 1818 (according to personal property tax records) in the county where all of my grandparents were raised.  However, he sold all of his land years before he died and moved to another county (where records were burned in 1869).  It was nearly 30 years later before his youngest son - my 3-great grandfather was able to purchase land of his own.  I have no idea whose tenant they were in the meantime, or where my 4-great grandfather and his wife are buried, but I was able to enter burials for her parents (father died by 1801 and mother before then) because the county cemetery book indicates their family had one (also named the current landowner at time of publication) with about 4 rows of unmarked graves located on land they had purchased in 1759.  I limited the burials there to the family members known to have lived there until death, and the next family who owned the property (plus the only marked grave noted in the book who was a tenant).  

The "Henrico Parish" cemetery on Find-a-Grave seems to exist so that certain profiles (oftentimes with will or probate dates presented as the actual death date, some in the 17th century) don't have an unknown burial location. There are no parish burial records for this cemetery, and Moore's book about the parish doesn't mention or suggest who might be buried there.  Most are more likely to have been buried in family cemeteries, as that seems to have become customary after settlement extended away from the original hundreds.

Answer 1

I've added the sameas=no parameter to the FindAGrave template so it no longer shows up on suggestion reports.

The category is still valid. 41 other profiles link to that category.

Comments

Stu,

Thanks for disabling the suggestions.  So there are 41 profiles in the cemetery's category on WikiTree, and 119 in the Find-A-Grave cemetery.

Answer 2

If there is a Henrico Parish Church Cemetery in Varina, Virginia I would think that the category should remain in the category list. In the specific case of John and Jane Doe buried in Henrico Parish Church Cemetery the first thing would be to add a == Research Note == entry questioning the assignment. The second thing would be to politely query the manager asking for source documentation of the burials. Only after letting those processes run would I remove the category for those individuals.

Comments

Anthony,

Thanks for responding.  I'm not sure I have the time or persistence to challenge all forty-one of the remaining profiles representing folks allegedly buried in the Henrico Parish cemetery soon.  

Thomas (Christian-163) (whose Find-a-Grave wife's burial is a person who never existed) already had a statement in the Research Notes about the burial location on Find-a-Grave being doubtful considering his residence in a different parish (St. James of Goochland County) before his death.  Yet a well-meaning person who doesn't manage the profile added the category anyway ignoring a 1731 deed abstract noting his residence as "Goochland County", his 1736 will recorded and proved the following year in Goochland, and the pre-existing Research Note about the dubious Find-a-Grave profile.

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I know what you mean. I just discovered last night that I have approximately 140 profiles of men who died on USS Atik that I need to update with the American Campaign Medal.

Answer 3

It seems to be the cemetary of St Johns Church established in 1741 https://savingplaces.org/distinctive-destinations/historic-st-johns-church with an estimated 1300 people buried, a good percentage without markers. The same photo is used on a few other findagrave profiles, so the place does exist,

Disclaimer, I know nothing about cenetary categories, edit, especially in America.

Comments

Gill,

I agree that the cemetery at what has been known as St. John's since the early 19th century existed then.  The alleged "Henrico Parish Cemetery" was at the older or lower parish church near Varina.  The Find-a-Grave burials at the alleged cemetery mostly predate 1741 and some are mid-17th century.