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 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 it isn't. 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. If you want a more advanced way to chat and coordinate there is also a handy spreadsheet courtesy of Steven Tibbetts.

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

• Helen E. Edwards - 306
• Paula A. Reinke - 190
• Kylie R. Haese - 136
• Jason R. Klehr - 135
• Terry McClintock - 89
• Karen D. Morris - 71
• N. Gauthier - 59
• Pam S. Smith - 58
• Diane Darcy - 57
• Don W. Kidd - 56

Comments

Challenge is active.

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I will do some

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Will try and get some done.

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One big discrepency with FAG birth/death locations is documentation.  A person may have died in the hospital, which is in a different town, county than the last residence. And the burial is in another town & county!  So you are looking at 3 different answers for the death location.

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Data on find a grave is generally unsourced.

I reference find a grave for burial info, but remain leary of other vital record data found on FAG until proofed.

i.e., FAG is a good burial reference but vital record references are best left to their conventional sources.

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Aleš - the Status Counters have stalled again at 17.06.2019 01:10:28 - Slovenian time

Answer 1

I've got some of these on my watchlist and will do some others

Answer 2

I will participate - it goes well with the cemeteries projects I also do!

Answer 3

Eowyn, I started working on some last night, but have some questions.  When looking at stones, sometimes the birth date is wrong, (and proof of birth/baptism is on profile which disputes wrong dates on stones) so how do we respond on FAG errors for this?  state FAG stone date is wrong because... exists? obviously its not a "false error" so looking for best way to stop the error report from appearing over and over.  Also..what about errors, for mismatched name spellings?  Name on Stone spelt one way..while birth/marriage/baptism spells another...again, obviously not a false error..so how do we correct and respond in error box corrections so it stops the continually reports of this difference over and over?  Getting names changed by pms on FAG or dates changed when stones clearly show otherwise..maybe impossible or at least difficult. Also.. this brings in issue of..disputing what is on the stone, ESPECIALLY if the Families of these departed, paid for the stones to be done...I don't think they will want info that tells them, "btw your ENGRAVED stone marker dates, ages, places, or name spellings arent the LNAB or b.cert.bptm cert dates" of your dearly departed are wrong - a conundrum can a worms I don't want to open, to request changes on the memorial pages would be ....obtuse, and flagrently lacking in social compassion for the families of the departed, not a boundry I'm willing to cross, just sayin.. so how do we deal with these issues?

Also when more than one person is on a Shared Gravestone...BUT one or more we know have passed, but their current marker stone is not showing the passing, (pics not updated to reflect on FAG, so no actual FAG ID for them, should we if we want to add them to FAG create the FAG of said deceased who is on stone?..but death date isn't..but we have confirmed death and location thru obits..  how do we deal with it?  leave FAG out and just use Obit and mention location of burial in bio, so as not to create error at all? there are most likely many on here that don't have the extra time available to also become FAG pms adding in there as well as here. so solutions are needed that stop the error reports because of these sometimes very minor detail. (we all know that stones can be placed sometimes years after the actual departure, so errors exist, but what solutions that are least invasive for the errors?

also where do I find that code & info again, for using FAG link with either "yes" or no" when spouses are both on same stone?

Enough questions, answers please and thank you..   :>)

Comments

I have requested FAG to correct data if the headstone clearly shows a different birth or death date.  Normally, the change is made fairly quickly.  However, if there is no headstone, or you can't read the info on it, you can suggest an edit if you have different birth or death dates from a credible source.  Usually sending the URL along with your message will suffice for a change.

If there is a difference in name spelling due to the family changing the spelling, the suggestion can be marked "false" and eliminated that way.  Also, some women are listed on the headstone with their married name;  the maiden name isn't used.

Of course, once in a while you run into a FAG profile manager who just doesn't respond, or is not paying attention.  I'm dealing with one of those right now.  I generally don't send a message directly.  I send one through the edit section....I figure if I send the same edit enough times, something will finally change.

Also, don't expect corrections to be made right away.  Some of the managers take forever to make a change, because they are so "busy".

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When i suggest edits on FOG, I list the source documents supporting the change.  If the manager of the FAG memorial still disputes the info, I will email them copies of the actual source documents to clear up any doubt.

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Have been told that stones are sometimes inscribed with wrong date for number of reasons: bad handwriting, typos, reversed numbers,etc.  Have seen bad dates in obits also.  If have death cert,  personal knowledge, funeral home papers, family Bible entry, that info should probably be good to ask for a correction.  I usually add a note on the memorial stating the reason for the differences.

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I have just included the FAG template in a post to this G2G

Answer 4

I should be able to take a look sometime this week.  Also, how do we show we are working on something?

Answer 5

Every time I find an error on FAG, whether working on error reports here or on my own family, I always notify FAG of the mistake.  Maybe I've just been lucky, but within a day or two they always approve the change.

Answer 6

I'll do a few. Thanks!

Answer 7

I do This all the time, even have conversations on the suggestion lists. I see if I can find an obit, too. Sometimes the fag memorial has hard to read inscriptions. I have done enough of them to know. I can usually clear them out or continue arguing with the suggestions. DOB on memorials are sometimes a Guess.

Cyndie

Answer 8

Remember, it is NOT a False suggestion when a FAG is mentioned in the profile for a different person.  

The FAG template must be used, setting the 3rd / last parameter to {{FindAGrave|nnnnn|sameas=no}}, substituting the Memorial ID for the nnnnn in the middle parameter.  That will clear the suggestion, and the profile will be updated correctly.

Comments

So....if I find a profile with the (old) https:findagrave format, do I delete that and substitute the {{   }} described above, or do I leave the https: in place and add the {{ }} somewhere else? Thanks!

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you can remove the old url and use the template.  I usually pull the full source citation that you can get at the bottom of the FAG page, when you select 'source citation'.  Then I change the Memorial ID so it is part of the template, so I don't have to copy / paste the ID, putting some of the template and after the id.  I just added the citation and template into this profile, so you can see how 'I' use it  Turnbow-356

Answer 9

I am participating

Answer 10

I'm working on the Arizona list.

Answer 11

I will do some also