Find A Grave biographies

[coombs]

Like many Heraldic Visitations and Ancestry Trees then. Errors galore.

I learned that if I want something done right, do it yourself.

[Erato]

I've seen some errors, but I also found one extremely useful piece of information which I doubt that I would ever have found on my own.  The same entry with the useful info also contained an error.  I sent a message to the person responsible and got a prompt and pleasant reply.  S/he immediately updated the entry with the information I supplied.

[Sandrafamilytree]

I have recently started to submit brief biographical details to FindaGrave entries for people with connections to my family.

Since starting my research I have accumulated a lot of potentially useful information from BMD registrations, parish registers, newspaper articles, census returns and such like. (All of which could contain their own errors, of course. Nothing is perfect.)

It seems a shame not to share.

As with everything else, I would not expect anyone simply to add that information to their family tree without due consideration. But if it gives someone a lead, a clue… I think that’s a good thing.

If I record where a particular person was baptised, for instance, then the reader can go on line or to a local studies centre and perhaps inspect the full Parish record for themselves.

Having now purchased a number of £2.50 birth and death records from GRO, I can sometimes add more specifically where a person was born or died.

It can also be useful to ‘link up’ FindaGrave entries, so families are brought together.
I’ve been doing some research recently and I have a couple of families that have several separate ‘FindaGrave’ entries that I realise I can connect, perhaps helping someone find more of their family members.

I take care with my suggested edits, and I'd hope anyone reading them would take care with them, too.

[Erato]

I totally agree with Sft.  There is a lot of carp, carp, carping on RootsChat about online errors but little acknowledgement of the useful information that is posted online.  For goodness's sake, amateur genealogists sometimes make mistakes and so do professionals, for that matter. This happens in any field of study.  You can go into any museum in the world and find misidentified specimens. That's just how it is.

[HughC]

Several times I've found discrepancies between dates announced in newspapers, on gravestone inscriptions, and/or from civil registration or parish registers (not to mention spelling of names).  It's hard to know what to believe.  I usually put both dates in my trees, with footnotes to say what the source was.

There's a further point that stones are often worn and numbers can be misread.

[Sandrafamilytree]

One of my research interests is the surname SMITH in the North East. (Yes, I know... )

I have a SMITH ancestor who died as a young child. She was born and died between censuses. Her birth and death were both registered in a particular name. She was baptised with a completely different name.

I ‘inherited’ very, very few family documents but I recently found – in an old tin – an invoice from the funeral director for ‘grave dressing’ so I know where she was buried and I have a plot number.

As far as I am aware, all the other trees on Ancestry have identified only her three siblings.

There was no FindaGrave entry for her, so I have created one.

I thought it would be helpful for anyone researching that family to know about the fourth child and to know about the difference between her registered name and her name at baptism, so I added a biographical note to that effect.

Because her parents and siblings already had FindaGrave entries I added the reference numbers for those memorials, so they are now all linked.

I have also added a postem on FreeBMD, so anyone who finds her birth registration will know she was baptised with a totally different name, which they may find helpful if they then want to look at Parish records.

I’m certainly not claiming any great ‘find’ that could not have been worked out by other researchers but the existence of the biographical details function on FindaGrave at least gives the opportunity to record potentially helpful pointers.

[coombs]

I totally agree with Sft.  There is a lot of carp, carp, carping on RootsChat about online errors but little acknowledgement of the useful information that is posted online.  For goodness's sake, amateur genealogists sometimes make mistakes and so do professionals, for that matter. This happens in any field of study.  You can go into any museum in the world and find misidentified specimens. That's just how it is.

With all due respect, I like useful info seen on Ancestry trees as well as Find A Grave but if I see an error am I supposed to just brush it off? If I find out they actually got the details of someone of the same name and age group to the right person. I shall gently tell them of the correct person, citing sources.

[Sandrafamilytree]

I wasn't aware of Find a Grave's stated goal/mission statement, but this thread got me interested, so I had a look.

Its stated aim is 'to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present final disposition information.'

Perhaps the key words there are 'work together.' If anyone felt I had made a mistake - whether on Find a Grave, or in my Ancestry tree or elsewhere - I would really welcome them with open arms! I certainly wouldn't be offended and I would want to hear what they had to say, and exchange opinions and information.

The way in which Rootschat members work together so willingly with advice, suggestions etc demonstrates the value of collaboration. The same spirit of collaboration could work on other sites, too.

[coombs]

My 2xgreat gran was born on the last day of 1863 in Warninglid, Sussex. Birth registered end of January 1864. Parents moved to London when she was about 4 months old. It was only in the summer of 2004 that I found she was born Sussex according to the 1871 census, as all subsequent censuses say she was born in London Stoke Newington. Not sure when Find A Grave was introduced but if my 2xgreat gran had a bio in 2004, giving London as her birthplace, it would have to be changed but a note probably added that she lived in London from babyhood onwards.