Challenge of the Week: Investigate Find A Grave suggestions [closed]

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

Will you join our Data Doctors Challenge for this week?

Aleš does something extraordinarily clever as part of his WikiTree+ data analysis: When a profile on WikiTree can be connected to a memorial on Find A Grave, the data here is compared with the data there. If there's a discrepancy, he alerts us to it.     

Sometimes Find A Grave has a birth date or location or a death date or location that's missing from WikiTree. These are golden nuggets for those of us who are obsessed with making profiles as complete as possible.     

This isn't mechanical, thoughtless work. This isn't like fixing typos. A genealogist needs to look at each one of these items and consider whether the information on Find A Grave is reliable. A lot of the information there isn't better than what we have here. Often it's worse. Just like on WikiTree, the information on Find A Grave all comes from its members.

Generally speaking, if there is a photo of the grave and you can see the information written in stone it's worth using. Even then, gravestones aren't always correct. If the gravestone is the source for a date, location, etc., make that clear in a source citation.   

What do you say? Will you help us sift through the mountain looking for the golden nuggets? Here is the table of suggestions to investigate.    

Please post here to say you're participating. That helps avoid working on the same items at the same time, and gives us the opportunity to cheer each other on.     

Also post here if you have any questions. Find A Grave suggestions aren't as easy to use as some of the other types, so if you're not sure about something, just ask.  

Thanks!     

P.S. Here's a tip: There is an easy way to put a link on a WikiTree profile to a Find A Grave memorial that will always work, even when Find A Grave changes their website (as they did recently). It's like this, where 1234 is the Find A Grave memorial number:     

== Sources ==     
<references />     
See also:     
* {{FindAGrave|1234}}

Top 10

• Esmé van der Westhuizen - 1,509
• Paula A. Hawkins - 1,487
• Helen E. Bowden - 1,219
• Rick P. San Soucie - 398
• S Stevenson - 276
• Cory Fulmer - 259
• Sandie Schwarz - 251
• Martha L. Mcaulay - 217
• Terry McClintock - 176
• Ginger D. Lawton - 174

Comments

I would like to add a military sticker to the following profile Inman-364, but I do not know which Indian War, in 1838,  is referred to ? "James Inman came with his parents to Ware Co., from Tattnall County, Georgia in boyhood and was married there. Mr. Inman served in the Indian War in Capt. D. J. Miller's company of Ware Co., militia in 1838"....

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What is the symbol used between FindAGrave & the Memorial ID?  Where is it on the keyboard?

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It is to the right of the brackets

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1835 to 1842 was the Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War. Perhaps it is that since it seems to be the only US war during that time with Indians.

I stand corrected. Each state dealt with different parts of the war. Georgia dealt with Cherokee Disturbances and Removal, Cherokee War,Creek War,Florida War,Seminole War, 1817-1818. Only the Creek war was fought in 1838 in Georgia.

I found a Muster Roll that I can't seem to link but it states that Miller's Ga. Militia fought the Florida War, which be the Second Seminole War in 1838, for 4 months. They arrived at Camp Wilds on August 20, 1838 then returned to Fort Floyd Ga. December 2, 1838.

Hope it all helps

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Good point to make that gravestone dates may not always be correct even if "written in stone". See Margaret Ogilvy (Ogilvy -218) mother of author J M Barrie. She was born a year earlier than given on her gravestone.

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Thanks -- I can't believe that there is no key to the right of the brackets on my main keyboard.  I pulled out a backup Keyboard and it has that symbol.  Thank you for helping me on this.

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On my keyboard it is on the key to the right of the one with + and =, on the same key as \, it took me ages to find it, i didn't recognise it as the | symbol (doesn't look like that on the key), I finally saw it on a help page here one day.

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Thank you for the update Mellisa !

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I would like to help.

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Greetings!   Huge thanks to those who participated in this Challenge of the Week.  

Happy Holiday's! 

Answer 1

I will do some

Answer 2

I'll be doing some, working on Australian profiles.

Answer 3

I will help edit profiles

Answer 4

I will help investigate.  Thank you, Ales!

All the best, Janet

Answer 5

Just a reminder, that there are many invalid dates at FAG that do not save at WikiTree and there is no warning the date you just saved, did not save, and now the date field is now empty.  

Watch for Feb 29 in an odd year, cannot be a leap year, 31st of a month that does not have 31 days.

Answer 6

I can work on this.

I tried one out, to see how this works, and I went to the 573 - empty birth date error list. I corrected the DOB for Bowman-1333 after reviewing the Find-A-Grave profile. I changed the status for the error suggestion to reflect this change. I refreshed the 573-empty birth date list, but the profile for Bowman-1333 remained on the list. shouldn't it disappear after it is corrected? Doing so would prevent people from spending a lot of time looking at the same profiles.

Comments

Alex you are correct to update the status of each suggestion, to get the challenge point and to allow the next person to see it is done.

However, contrary to your personal suggestions report, these lists do not update on refresh.  Those corrected lines will disappear the next time the whole suggestions table is updated, about every two weeks.  I believe it doesn't update dynamically because that would take a lot of server time for all of us participants updating frequently (which I would do if I could make the fixed ones disappear like you expected).  That would make our time more efficient, but the computer less efficient.  Even a daily update for a challenge would be nice :)

When working a larger list (not my own), I check to see if there is already an update (such as you posting one), or when I go to the profile, I look to see if a change was already made.  If so, then I go on to the next suggestion.

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Thanks for clarifying! At first, I had thought I had done something wrong and my correction hadn’t been taken into account, but that wasn’t the case. Your explanation helps, thanks.

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In Find A Grave only the memorial creator can make changes in the biography of the memorial  .If that person doesn't want to make the change it will not be changes.. (I know as I have been there) I admire those who try to correct data in Find A Grave memorials ..Remember : With the correct parents, correct siblings you can find your ancestor.....Dates count as much as names.

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Two of the three biography corrections I asked for were made, so I guess it depends on who the creator was!

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Alex, just so you know, the list is static. It is created once a week by Aleš when he does his weekly reports. That is why we do things like try to track who is working where on the spreadsheet to avoid working the same areas. I also try to put important tips at the bottom as well.

If you put something in "explain your changes" just a brief comment, it will show in last changes if you look. I always make it a habit to check that to see if it has been changed recently.

Answer 7

I will work on this periodically throughout the week.

As far as I'm concerned, it cannot be stated enough to beware the FindAGrave data. I don't know that I can find it now, but within the last week I had an instance where I convinced myself there were 2 FG entries for the same person ... that did not agree with each other ... My memory could be wrong ... If this bugs me enough I'll comb through my change history and see if I can find it.

Have a good week, everyone!

Comments

I grew up in a small town with another Steven Tibbetts who was about 5 years older than me. I got a couple of his playboy magazines in error. That is why I always use my middle initial. I also almost got denied a rental because he did a background check and it said I was arrested for drunk driving when I wasn't even living in the state. I asked him to double check using my middle initial.

Duplicate names and mistaken identities in small areas suck. LOL

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Totally understand! Even with a more uncommon LNAB like Keil, it happens a fair amount. My brother and I each regularly get emails for important appointment reminders that have nothing to do with us ... sometimes overdue notices for things in states we haven't been in for over 35 years ... I haven't always lived where I am now, and when I first got here everyone wanted to know if I was related to Susan Keil, a somewhat well known veterinarian in the area ...<sigh> ... Then there is my own Susan/Steven "thing" ... I have a rather deep voice for a woman, and lost track long ago of the number of times when asked my name on the phone I would say "Susan" and they'd repeat back "Steven" <repeat> ... <repeat> ... another <sigh> ...

All said I know we two will be very careful with this week's challenge! Hope you have fun with it.

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I have a question.  Is it policy to change dates to match Findagrave?  There is a lot of in correct dates involving my family on that site.

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My very first look at fag was a case of duplicate memorials for different states with one misquoting the date which is easily read by enlarging the photo and is given in the death record for the other state.  As I am the only person to have been present both at the burial and the other site, I was the first to notice.I got total cooperation in fixing this except the fag backups continually uncorrected.  I'd be surprised if wikitreers are researching for fag dupes.

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If I have nothing else to go on, I'll use the FindAGrave  dates ... maybe just the birth or the death but not both if I'm suspicious of one. If I have another source with different dates, I tend to go with the non-FG source unless it really seems wrong in light of other sourced data I have.

I have only used FG since after starting to use WT, and appreciate it for hints, similar to how I feel about family tree hints on Ancestry. (Not to be confused with documents/sources available on Ancestry which are for me at least pretty awesome ... generally better and easier to find than Family Search ... just my experience though.) I quickly noticed some issues with the FG data. Earlier, I contacted a few of the FG profile managers and after hearing nothing back have decided doing that is not worth my time.

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You can also use {{FindAGrave|x}} references in the Notes rather than the Sources if you merely want to refer to it rather than use it as a source (IMO highly advisable unless there is a picture of the gravestone) - I have profiles from my initial GEDCOM upload to Wikitree where I would say tens of people on Ancestry have copied what I believe to be the unsubstantiated work of one person linking a family in the US to one in Ireland...something is not always better than nothing.

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When putting in the Find A Grave Template in a profile for the person in the grave, it is advisable to put the 3rd option 'sameas=yes' so that it won't give Errors when there are multiple FAG entries included in a profile for other related people.  

FAG for person in profile {{FindAGrave|nnnnn|sameas=yes}}

FAG for other related people, {{FindAGrave|nnnnn|sameas=no}}

Answer 8

I'll be working on a few of these this week

Answer 9

I will poke around on some profiles this week.

I'll work on Minnesota.

Answer 10

I'm in like Flynn.

Answer 11

I want to help, but I am afraid that I will mess up.

Comments

Lynn, if you want to try a few, I'd be happy to review some of your entries and give you tips.  My procedure is to 

1.  Open a window for each (one for the Wikitree profile and one for the FAG entry).  It's easier to compare that way.

2.  Then determine if it is the correct person.  if not, either unlink the FAG (for totally wrong person) or if a relative (more likely), change the source citation in Wikitree to this format: (where ### is the FAG memorial number)

{{FindAGrave|######|sameas=no}} 

3.  If correct person, then use primary sources (preferable) to determine which info is correct.  

4.  Update the Wikitree profile with anything that needs correction and add  the source you used to determine that.  You can also change the FAG citation in Wikitree to this: 

{{FindAGrave|######|sameas=yes}} 

(where #### is the memorial number)

5.  Go to the suggestions list and click the status button to enter the correct result.

Feel free to send me a Private Message with some links if you would like a review.

Answer 12

Just because a monument or headstone has accurate information does not necessarily mean that the people are actually buried there.  I know of several monuments that were erected while people were alive but then married other people & were subsequently buried with the new spouse.  Other family members have been interred in these empty lots without new headstone being erected.  I doubt that it happens very often, but such things do occur.  Just something to keep in mind when opposing data comes along.

Answer 13

Ill do some of these.

Answer 14

I'll do some.

Answer 15

I am going to try some!

Answer 16

I'll work on some.

Answer 17

I will try to do some of these, I will focus on Australian entries.

My experience with FAG is that as well as having duplicate entries in the same graveyard, I know that there are gravestones that have details of people who are not buried there.  

For example I have a couple of WWI soldier relatives who died and are buried in overseas war cemeteries who are also listed on the gravestone of their parents in the local graveyard.  Details are correct (name and DOD) but cannot assume the place of death is the same as the memorial place.

Answer 18

I will try to do some of these, at least to putting my findagrave refs into the new format. I wanted to second your statement that findagrave is not always right. For instance, I just sent them a correction, because the Klaus Mulder (I think) that they linked with the wife I have for Klaus only lived to 13 years old, so was obviously the wrong Klaus. They do make changes if you suggest these and they seem vaid to them or you have data with sources. I didn't know Klaus' dates, but it certainly wasn't those!

Answer 19

I will help.

Answer 20

I'll work on a few today and use the Tracker - although the Find-a-Grave mismatch "errors" make me so grumpy! For awhile whenever I cited to Find-a-Grave I indicated in the source that it was because I was looking at a photo of the headstone - otherwise it wasn't really a source, right? But someone went through and reformatted my citations to remove my notes about whether or not there was a photo included!

Comments

I don't blame you, Amanda! I often add notes to my FindAGrave citations and would be very grumpy to find them gone.