FindAGrave template and new site

Question

I corrected the FindAGrave template ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:FindAGrave ) to point to corrected URL.

Existing links are still working, so I will take no EditBOT action on them for now. I expect them to be functional for several years. I will start to correct them, when a profile is saved for another reason, but I am not sure if I should convert ti to template or just the new URL.

Answer 1

Thank you Aleš, but I must be dense because I don't see any difference in the template.  Is it just to be careful not to have any spaces?

Comments

Difference is only in link on profile to the memorial, so it is not redirected on FindAGrave. Space still shouldn't be used before the number.

Answer 2

The new FindAGrave now has a "Source citation" button at the buttom of each profile that gives a complete citation like FamilySearch or Wikipedia.  It's generally been considered desirable or polite to use a source provider's desired format.  The problem with the new FindAGrave citations is that they contain hyperlinks that don't transfer the URL when copy and pasted.

I suspect that the Wikitree FindAGrave template can't incorporate the new citation format, but I'm just sharing this for discussion purposes.

Comments

cut/paste: Its how Wikitree is done just using ASCII text and don't have n WYSIWYG editor....

new citation format: looks good I think the most important thing is to have a format that fulfils your requirement..... the people best on citations I think are Evidence Explained see discussion about FindAGrave older format. For my taste they make it a little bit to difficult.....

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I got a 572 on several profiles using the new citation format and the template. I suspect it’s choking on the base URL portion of the citation. I’ve used cut and paste then added the template to get something like this from Sands-2014

Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 9 November 2017), memorial page for John H. Sands (29 Sep 1861–27 Jan 1940), Find A Grave Memorial no. 62272987, citing Deepwood Cemetery, Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri, USA ; Maintained by JARROTT P. COX (contributor 46518980) . {{FindAGrave|62272987}}

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571 and 572 suggestions are reported incorrectly this week. They changed the site and I have to update the validation routines. It will take a day or two to sort it out.

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Not keen on the citations supplied, because they haven't actually taken the info from the records of the cemetery, they only have it from the contributor.

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>> only have it from the contributor.

Isnt that the problem with FindaGrave in general.....??!?!? 

I think WikiTree should on a cemetery category start gather better sources than using FindAGrave..... 

FindAGrave is not big in Sweden but I see it mostly as an easy way of getting a photo of a grave not a good "source"

I have spent too much time with a Swedish Churchyard mapping 1500 graves and then I always use the official registers. Lesson learned

1. Those registers also have GPS coords of the grave
2. Those records are old so I get a good source how they spelled their names
3. The titles are in the registers and often not on the gravestone
4. Most graves are big and there are some graves for different occupations. Those graves can be big. One of the biggest could contain 2000 people.....

As I use Wikidata I can do cool SPARQL queries and some other people has built applications to cemeteries

1. Application graves.wiki/#/map/@59.357614,18.021848,16z
    
2. SPARQL examples

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Don’t confuse the use of FindAGrave as a source with use of the citation for FindAGrave.

The citation as provided from the new site is excellent. It identifies where the information was found (the repository Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com :), how and when it was found (accessed 9 November 2017), who it pertains to and what was found (memorial page for John H. Sands (29 Sep 1861–27 Jan 1940), Find A Grave Memorial no. 62272987, citing Deepwood Cemetery, Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri, USA ; Maintained by JARROTT P. COX (contributor 46518980) .)

This gives sufficient information so that you can review the FindAGrave entry to assess the quality of the sources. These vary widely, some describe census or marriage records, some have death certificate images, some are obviously put together with cemetery records, most give you hints for names, dates and locations to search for records, and some are just a pretty good indication of where someone is buried.

A blanket statement that FindAGrave shouldn’t be used because it’s not reliable is like saying that WikiTree profiles shouldn’t be used because they have no sources or are just someone’s online tree. (Aside, in looking at unsourced profiles, I’ve found quite a few where the family aligns with FindAGrave, and from there have been able to find marriage and census records for those profiles.)