I found a way to lessen frustration with error report

Question

Since Find-a-grave is an unsourced source, which provides accurate information only about burial locations (and sometimes not even that), my solution to reams of Find-a-grave errors is to no longer add those sources to my profiles so that they will no longer generate errors.

My solution to frustration with Wikitree in general is to no longer participate in G2G.

Comments

Quite a few people I know of have stopped using Find A Grave as a reference in there profiles. I personally view it as a Breadcrumb so that newer Wiki-tree Genealogist can get a basic Idea of the correct family line.

I'm also sad that you have decided to depart from using the G2G Forums. Hopefully through time things will get better for you.

Best of Luck

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I've also largely stopped adding Find a Grave as a source; I'll only add it if there's a gravestone photo and I have no other source for the death date.

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Most of my FAG memorials are sourced with obituaries and public records. Occasionally, the years on the stone will conflict with the death certificate, usually only by a year and only in the birth year. It's frustrating since it's hard to know which is correct.

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J. Cook.... Seems like you unselected my answer from Best Answer.... I think that is not right..... but because of your frustration, I will leave it be. But my suggestion stands, and you should listen to Magnus, he is only trying to help.

Answer 1

I still like the idea of having levels of error reported so you can look only at the levels you want.

You can still add a category for the cemetery.

Working with the person on Find A Grave is the best solution. I have been successful. They may have estimated from the date of death to get the date of birth.

There is a lot of information that can be gotten by looking at all the people with that name in the cemetery.

I have converted the link to a comment in a case where the gravestone was wrong and the Find A Grave Person felt that she needed to report that date even though she agreed it was wrong. (Maybe a tag on the link/template to say error in FAG?)

Answer 2

If I read the error report on the profiles you manage

You mark things as not corrected ==> the error will also be displayed next week

You have also an option False error (hide forever) 

 

Answer 3

My suggestion would be if you find an error with a Find A Grave Memorial, find out on that page who the creator of the memorial is and see if they have a link that you can contact them with. There have been a few instances where I needed to have a correction made on FAG, and with the help of the page creator, we managed to get the correct information on the memorial, whether it be date of birth, error on the death date, error concerning the listed relatives etc. Some of those volunteers are also here on WikiTree and are most willing to assist.

Another recommendation is to ask the person to have a picture taken of the tombstone. They may have to ask around to see who handles that area but it has been done. On the contributor's profile page there is a link for photo requests in most cases. You may have to sign in to FAG but its free to join, and free to ask for assistance.

I wouldn't give up on "Find A Grave", again, they are volunteers just as we are here on WikiTree. Most welcome your emails and or suggestions on their contact page.

Comments

Thank you Magnus for Best Answer!  Hummm was "best answer", got unselected by J. Cook.

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But Dorothy, Magnus, c'mon now!!  Surely you must realize, after all the previous comments on this subject, that the correspondent's complaint is not about Find A Grave, and that he/she is not seeking a way to get an error corrected on that site.  What is to be gained by blowing smoke on the issue?

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Its not smoke Dennis, its my personal experience with FAG, and if one would give them a chance they may get some positive results. This answer is not just for the writer above but for anyone who reads this question and our answers.

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The problem in this case is

1. Problem understand how the Database Error report should be used
2. I also get a feeling not interested to investigate the differences or dont understand the possibilities with FAG

I do a lot at FindAGrave and graves I have been sitting in Sweden and got magic response from the USA see G2G ...

I think it's stupid to not trying contact the FAG person when its so easy today and/or try to request a photo often the person uploading the record to FindAGrave has much better knowledge of the cemetery than you have..

See feedback I have got on my FAG page

 

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I have contacted numerous Find-a-grave managers.  I manage over 3,800 profiles myself.  Not everyone makes corrections.  The person who manages my great-great-grandfather's grave may never correct the error since about half our relatives agree with him, even though I have his christening record and multiple other sources.  I don't need to see this as an error on my report when I have multiple sources which contradict the Find-a-grave memorial.  So I have removed that source.  Find-a-grave only shows you burial locations, and Wikitree doesn't even ask for that information.

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J. Crook please learn using the error report you should mark them as

False error

not Not corrected




Big pic

And yes you are correct both WikiTree and FindAGrave is far from excellent tools regarding Genealogy

• Wikitree
  • has a location database that today starts adding suggestions but 
  • you have just one name for locations not the historical name etc....
  • you have no field for place of burial
    • no field for coordinates of place of burial
    • no field for place of burial plot
    • no photo of grave
  • lack a standard for sourcing
• Findagrave
  • has a list of valid values to set location that often is wrong and wrong spelled
  • has no good way of sourcing or external links
  • dates is set without setting the calendar used...'

and both sites has nearly no quality control so the result is nothing you can trust... I think FindAgrave people also complains on the quality and protected profiles of WikiTree...

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I have also had pretty good luck with getting corrections made on Find-A-Grave.   I do wish that there was a comment section that I could source my findings (if there is one, I don't know where it is)  And you can find some interesting information on FAG

I understand the frustrations with the error report using the Find-A-Grave, but find that most could be fixed easily.   Where there was a conflict in sources, I made notes on the profile page.   And in some cases, I had 3 or 4 different sources with all different birth dates for example.   So having conflicting sources is not a rare occurrence.     We do the best we can with the information that we find.  

I worked hard to clean up my error report.   I found that there are 2 places to pull error reports from.   One showed no errors and the other (which I hadn't been aware of) had a lot, Most were because of FAG.  I don't know if there was because that the error report was generated differently.    To stop using FAG as a secondary source might make life a bit easier but you might be missed some interested info

Answer 4

I am both on Wikitree and FAG. You can find a lot of information on ancestors on FAG. I just found a several family members through FAG as you will find a lot of the graves are handled by their family. They directed me to in one case 8 sources of that family line's information and I have already found over 60 additional family members, and still adding..