Author Topic: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?  (Read 2791 times)

Offline aghadowey

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #9 on: Saturday 02 July 22 12:32 BST (UK) »
I've had a mixed experience with Find A Grave in recent years. In several instances I submitted corrections to a few people, was thanked and details were almost immediately corrected on the site.
However, I've two especially annoying problems. First concerns a relative whose entry show an incorrect middle name. My correction with a explanation was sent but no response. I know who the person is (a relative) and other people have continued the error in their trees. One of them recently corrected me when I gave the real middle name saying records give the other one. When I asked which records do so (I have 3 census records, numerous obituaries, burial details from cemetery, newspaper articles, deeds, etc.) they finally admitted 'maybe' I was right now that they can see the references.
Second case is a bit more annoying since it concerns a large number of people who are apparently buried at our church about 200 years before the 1st actual burial (before the church was on it's present site- no burying ground at site of old church which we used to own). Some of them do have a headstone at a neighbouring church in the same parish. When contacted one of the submitters (a husband & wife team) asked for proof and then said they weren't going to change anything as 'it would be too complicated to correct so many errors' or words to than effect. 
Away sorting out DNA matches... I may be gone for some time many years!

Offline Clear

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #10 on: Saturday 02 July 22 19:38 BST (UK) »
Ancestry is full of inaccuracy and sometimes to a ridiculous level.  As a total novice I trusted Ancestry's "suggested parent" feature and ended up related to Mary Tudor ! I had to delete hundreds of records from my tree.

Offline CaroleW

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #11 on: Sunday 03 July 22 10:35 BST (UK) »
This topic is about Findagrave - AngelJunction has now opened her own topic re Ancestry "suggested parent" here

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=863658.new;topicseen#new
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Offline Glen in Tinsel Kni

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #12 on: Tuesday 05 July 22 19:40 BST (UK) »
There are some managers who bulk upload transcriptions of registers. If a cemetery had very few entries and suddenly appears to have thousands that's usually the reason, clicking on a few of the memorials will reveal who the manager is and their profile will show how many memorials they have created and how many they manage. Corrections offered can be accepted or rejected by a manager, if ignored they are auto accepted after a period of about 28 days (I can't recall the exact timeframe). Some managers are really good and deal with corrections promptly, some are a little slower to respond, some ask for documents/supporting evidence before accepting them.
The bulk uploads may be light on detail as the registers themselves rarely have  maiden names for example and even if burials of the same surname appear in the same plot the multi million manager types rarely research the names to link them together as family groups.

I've had good and bad experiences, it's not the site as such, more the attitude of those using it and the way they sometimes use it, that goes not only for managers but also for those submitting corrections. I've had numerous corrections offering maiden names to memorials I've added but sent as private messages, where a name applies to duplicate memorials it's often difficult to tell which memorial is being referred to. If the 'suggest edits' was used then it's much easier as a manager to go through them.
 


Offline Enumerated

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #13 on: Tuesday 26 July 22 20:41 BST (UK) »
"First concerns a relative whose entry show an incorrect middle name. My correction with a explanation was sent but no response."

The memorial manager may no longer be active on findagrave or perhaps they have changed their email address. If you had used the edit system there would have been a response - the manager would have to accept or decline the edit. If they did nothing, the edit would have been automatically accepted after 21 days.

Offline aghadowey

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #14 on: Wednesday 27 July 22 11:52 BST (UK) »
I did try that, Enumerated, and my correction was also rejected without explanation. I know that the person is active and has the same email address. They also don't responded to queries about DNA matches (from more than one relative).
Away sorting out DNA matches... I may be gone for some time many years!

Offline Glen in Tinsel Kni

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #15 on: Wednesday 27 July 22 21:05 BST (UK) »
I did try that, Enumerated, and my correction was also rejected without explanation. I know that the person is active and has the same email address. They also don't responded to queries about DNA matches (from more than one relative).

Suggested edits on Findagrave can be declined without a reason having to be given, there is no way to know if a memorial manager is active on the site or not as there is no indication of their login or activity history. Findagrave does not support DNA links/matches. 


There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the site but the way some users go about things can leave a lot to be desired. The same can be said of trees on any of the tree hosting platforms, I've seen some really mangled efforts for my direct ancestors on wikitree and tribal pages, had no response to messages on Ancestry and rolled back edits on familysearch and merged duplicates several times.

Offline aghadowey

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #16 on: Wednesday 27 July 22 22:03 BST (UK) »
Suggested edits on Findagrave can be declined without a reason having to be given, there is no way to know if a memorial manager is active on the site or not as there is no indication of their login or activity history. Findagrave does not support DNA links/matches. 

The person who has the incorrect information is a relative, I know they are still active on the site. I know that Find A Grave has no DNA connection but was merely commenting that this same person does not respond to DNA messages or queries from known relatives.
Away sorting out DNA matches... I may be gone for some time many years!

Offline hurworth

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Re: Findagrave swamped with inaccurate entries?
« Reply #17 on: Saturday 30 July 22 04:12 BST (UK) »
I do wonder why people upload photos if there are already good photos of the grave.

Recently photos have been uploaded of the graves of relatives that are not an improvement on the  photos that are already there.  Some photos are too pixelated (probably taken on a phone), or the photographer hasn't crouched to get a good angle, or they don't check what is in the background and the photo includes a rubbish bin! 

In early 2020 I flew to another city for a funeral and decided to search for some graves while I was there.  It was  very successful mission and I took a hearthbrush and shovel with me to tidy up the graves before I photographed them.  They needed a little bit of weeding.  I visited the cemetery early in the morning before the funeral, tidied the graves and photographed them, but I decided the sun would be at a better angle later in the day so I returned in the afternoon and took more photographs.  The afternoon photos were much better and I created entries for these relatives and uploaded the afternoon photos.

I really do try if possible to make the photo as attractive as possible.  One of my favourite photos that I took is of a grave that isn't associated with my family.  It was a clear autumn day with good light and the ground was covered with bright red and orange leaves. 

I was back there at Christmas 2020 and the graves were looking very tidy.  Since then one grave has been overgrown by vines.  A volunteer has taken a low quality pixelated photo of the grave in this state and uploaded the photo.  I just can't see the point, and now this grotty image is the main image on the entry.