Proposal for a new template: FindAGraveCemetery

Question

Hi All,

Find A Grave recently announced that they will be removing the old site later this month.

Most cemetery categories contain URLs (links) to the cemetery page on Find A Grave. A lot of these categories will need to be updated with links to the new Find A Grave page for the cemetery.

It would be easier if we had a new template that expanded into the correct link for the Find A Grave page for a cemetery.

Each cemetery page on Find A Grave has a unique number that identifies the cemetery, much like there is a Memorial # for each memorial.

I propose that a new template be created called FindAGraveCemetery, that worked similarly to the existing FindAGrave template. The parameter to the new template would be the cemetery ID number.

For example:

{{FindAGraveCemetery|57267}}

would expand to

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/57267

This is the Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado, United States.

We can then use the FindAGraveCemetery template on cemetery category pages to link the cemetery category to the Cemetery page on Find A Grave. In the future, if there are other changes, we wouldn't have to change hundreds (or thousands) of category pages, just the template to redirect as necessary.

Thoughts?

Comments

I would definitely use the template.

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Agreed. 

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I use Find A grave fairly often and have had great success with it.   I would love for a template to be added to this site.

Answer 1

Technical things:

• What was the cemetery link on the old site, so EditBOT can correct them? 
• Template implementation

{{FindAGraveCemetery|57267}}

would expand to WikiText

Find A Grave: [https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/57267 Cemetery #57267]

which is rendered as 

Find A Grave: Cemetery #57267

That would be the same as for Memorials.

Comments

I believe this is the original url style for the old site.

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=57267

I think that the old links currently redirect to the new site.

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But the memorial ID's remain the same. To what I understand.

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The memorial ID numbers and the cemetery ID numbers remain the same, it's just the URLs that have changed. Currently, the old style URLs take you to the new pages. I do not know if those redirects will still occur indefinitely after they completely shut down the old site.

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That was the reason for starting this thread. We should have templates that can generate the new URLs, so we don't suddenly get 404 errors when Find A Grave switches over on August 20.

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Understood, was just answering the questions asked. 

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The redirects are performed on the new server, so I am almost sure it will work after Aug 20. But it can stop working in the future or with next redesign.

So template is still a good solution.

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This is the link to the old page https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=57267 (which won't work after the 20th)

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good point. I checked and it is just a few of them.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cook-12944
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Huddleston-1735
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cunningham-5574
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Evans-20787
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Evans-20790
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Evans-20791
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Evans-20793
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Evans-20796
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Evans-20797
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Turnbull-2002
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Carson-4640
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cook-23023
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hiatt-2315
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Huff-3602
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Haines-3576

If someone will correct the references to them. Remind me to recheck after the first dump after 20th.

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@Aaron

That is the new link to the old site. It is not the original url.

Answer 2

Thanks for proposing this. Yes, I would certainly use it.

Answer 3

I would use this template!

Answer 4

Now looking at this again, I don't know if it will be useful.

I guess main usage of this link would be on Category pages. but for that, I prepared Template:CategoryInfoBox_Cemetery, that handles links to all mayor graver sites.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:CategoryInfoBox#Template:CategoryInfoBox_Cemetery

Example

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Cherry_Fork_Cemetery%2C_Cherry_Fork%2C_Ohio

This template wasn't discussed yet with Cemeteries project, where we would add all necessary information expected on each Cemetery category.

To see recently discussed template for Unsourced Profiles categories see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:France_Unsourced_Profiles

Comments

Your solution would be feasible only if these types of links were used on Category pages alone - however, they are also used on Space pages, and could also be used on profile pages (which I have considered doing since I have entire families buried in the same cemetery).

So the template should not be ruled out based on an category-only viewpoint and alternative.

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I totally agree, that  is why I asked about the usage.

I checked on the usage and www.findagrave.com is used on 16358 categories and on 1283 space pages.

Here you can see the categories using it, but it is a long list.

https://wikitree.sdms.si/default.htm?report=srch6&Query=findagrave

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Hi Aleš,

I wasn't aware of Template:CategoryInfoBox_Cemetery. I like it a lot as it has much more information available, and common information too, like location of cemetery (with a link to the location category), links to maps, and a link back to the cemetery project that manages it.

I like it! I would much rather use this template.

Can we get this discussed with the Cemetery Project? I'm going to start using this template.

Answer 5

How, exactly, is this different from the current template:{{FindAGrave|57267}}?

Comments

It is a link to the whole cemetery, not a single memorial on the cemetery.