I'm an avid genealogist and photo enumerator of cemeteries. I've taken photos of headstones for many years, enumerated several cemeteries and slowly adding them online. My main project here on Find A Grave has been helping photo enumerate our oldest cemetery here in Amarillo for Llano Cemetery under the name 'Walter Dunn'. This allows us to request a spreadsheet from FAG that has ALL our memorials on it, thus making sure we have no duplicates etc.

As to how I go about creating memorials, here is my way of doing it. I go for the obituary or any other information about the person. I’m a genealogist and the more that is put in the memorial, the more helpful it is for family to ‘know’ their ancestor and clues to find more ancestors. I’ve run across many gravers who will NOT put an obituary in. If I have the situation where they are too lazy to add my information, then I put it all in a document, take a screen shot of it, save as a .jpg and post it to the memorial as a photo. Usually they will then email me asking me to take the photo down and they update the memorial. **Note: Obituaries are in newspapers and so many other places. People cut them out, copy them, save them, you name it. If one is to assume that you might be infringing on a newspaper's copyright or some similar posting of an obituary, I honestly think the said newspaper consider an obituary public information. Now if the newspaper runs an article about the deceased, then I think they might not like it. It doesn't hurt to call the newspaper and ask. If the newspaper is no longer in business, then I figure their obituary is public domain. Just my opinion.

One thing to think about when you suggest information and they don’t do anything about it, if you will write FAG and tell them you think the person is either dead or not posting any longer. SOMETIMES they will turn the memorial over to you but most times they will take over management which means they NEVER EVER, EVER, EVER make any corrections or additions. For sure that’s when I put the information on as a photo.

I have had in the past where I have requested FAG to combine two memorials of the same person and they have so far. Now that Ancestry has bought them out, I don’t know if this will happen. We’ll see eventually. In addition to this, I have taken down a memorial that I have made that is a duplicate of another one if they are even a bit civil to me….but only AFTER they update the memorial in question with everything that I have on the person that is extra from what they have.

I will say since I finally figured out to do the corrections via the edit process, I’ve been more successful in getting my suggestions updated.

I have started changing some of the way I type up the obituary in that I don’t add the preacher etc of who is officiating if it’s newer than say about 1900. I also don’t add the mortuary if there is plenty of information in the obituary that would be helpful to the researcher. Most times, the pall bearers are somewhat important in that they may be clues to the deceased.

I WILL NOT PUT ‘PASSED’ or ‘PASSED AWAY’ in an obit but rather that they DIED. Just a quirk of mine. If it says anything about that the deceased was ‘LOST’ that for sure won’t go in….where did they lose the deceased??? On the way to the burial, they stopped at K-Mart and lost them in the store? I think when I go to K-Mart that there are all these spirits walking around, waiting to go on to heaven. Of course we don’t have a K-Mart any longer, but that’s just the store I thought up when I first thought about it.

If I don’t feel there is enough information such as where they were born or died exactly, I’ll do a quick search of the SSDI or on Ancestry. I have a dummy tree that I use just for this kind of look-up. If I find the wife’s name or children or parents easily on FAG, I will then link them where I can and also send suggestions to link the person to whoever has the linked to person’s memorial. Yeah, it’s a bit overboard and time consuming, but I do tend to carried away. If I find a lot of information easily on one that I created the memorial, I for sure add that information.

Just one of my quirks, is the old ladies who have to mention each time they speak to another person that they ‘lost their husband’ while lowering their head and eyes…sort of like soap operas do when someone asks a question and the person they ask doesn’t say anything FOREVER then it goes to commercial break. Anyway back to the lost widows…. I usually say back to them, ‘Did you lose him in K-Mart?’ Kind of mean and tacky but some widows will milk the sympathy gig so badly that way just to either gain sympathy or they ‘can’t’ do something because of them being a widow…I want to scream to them ‘Your husband has been dead for 20 frigging years! Sure you miss him, but get a life and DO something for yourself!!’


I've received much more from Find A Grave than I have given and I am eternally grateful for this. Through Find A Grave, I've 'met' some pretty awesome ancestors who I'd love to sit down with them and have a long chat.....Other's, I've 'met' sure are interesting and were very successful criminals.

Never hesitate to write me about a memorial or transferring one to you. If they are not my immediate ancestors, then I am happy to oblige.
Ruth
Proudly from Amarillo, Texas
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I'm an avid genealogist and photo enumerator of cemeteries. I've taken photos of headstones for many years, enumerated several cemeteries and slowly adding them online. My main project here on Find A Grave has been helping photo enumerate our oldest cemetery here in Amarillo for Llano Cemetery under the name 'Walter Dunn'. This allows us to request a spreadsheet from FAG that has ALL our memorials on it, thus making sure we have no duplicates etc.

As to how I go about creating memorials, here is my way of doing it. I go for the obituary or any other information about the person. I’m a genealogist and the more that is put in the memorial, the more helpful it is for family to ‘know’ their ancestor and clues to find more ancestors. I’ve run across many gravers who will NOT put an obituary in. If I have the situation where they are too lazy to add my information, then I put it all in a document, take a screen shot of it, save as a .jpg and post it to the memorial as a photo. Usually they will then email me asking me to take the photo down and they update the memorial. **Note: Obituaries are in newspapers and so many other places. People cut them out, copy them, save them, you name it. If one is to assume that you might be infringing on a newspaper's copyright or some similar posting of an obituary, I honestly think the said newspaper consider an obituary public information. Now if the newspaper runs an article about the deceased, then I think they might not like it. It doesn't hurt to call the newspaper and ask. If the newspaper is no longer in business, then I figure their obituary is public domain. Just my opinion.

One thing to think about when you suggest information and they don’t do anything about it, if you will write FAG and tell them you think the person is either dead or not posting any longer. SOMETIMES they will turn the memorial over to you but most times they will take over management which means they NEVER EVER, EVER, EVER make any corrections or additions. For sure that’s when I put the information on as a photo.

I have had in the past where I have requested FAG to combine two memorials of the same person and they have so far. Now that Ancestry has bought them out, I don’t know if this will happen. We’ll see eventually. In addition to this, I have taken down a memorial that I have made that is a duplicate of another one if they are even a bit civil to me….but only AFTER they update the memorial in question with everything that I have on the person that is extra from what they have.

I will say since I finally figured out to do the corrections via the edit process, I’ve been more successful in getting my suggestions updated.

I have started changing some of the way I type up the obituary in that I don’t add the preacher etc of who is officiating if it’s newer than say about 1900. I also don’t add the mortuary if there is plenty of information in the obituary that would be helpful to the researcher. Most times, the pall bearers are somewhat important in that they may be clues to the deceased.

I WILL NOT PUT ‘PASSED’ or ‘PASSED AWAY’ in an obit but rather that they DIED. Just a quirk of mine. If it says anything about that the deceased was ‘LOST’ that for sure won’t go in….where did they lose the deceased??? On the way to the burial, they stopped at K-Mart and lost them in the store? I think when I go to K-Mart that there are all these spirits walking around, waiting to go on to heaven. Of course we don’t have a K-Mart any longer, but that’s just the store I thought up when I first thought about it.

If I don’t feel there is enough information such as where they were born or died exactly, I’ll do a quick search of the SSDI or on Ancestry. I have a dummy tree that I use just for this kind of look-up. If I find the wife’s name or children or parents easily on FAG, I will then link them where I can and also send suggestions to link the person to whoever has the linked to person’s memorial. Yeah, it’s a bit overboard and time consuming, but I do tend to carried away. If I find a lot of information easily on one that I created the memorial, I for sure add that information.

Just one of my quirks, is the old ladies who have to mention each time they speak to another person that they ‘lost their husband’ while lowering their head and eyes…sort of like soap operas do when someone asks a question and the person they ask doesn’t say anything FOREVER then it goes to commercial break. Anyway back to the lost widows…. I usually say back to them, ‘Did you lose him in K-Mart?’ Kind of mean and tacky but some widows will milk the sympathy gig so badly that way just to either gain sympathy or they ‘can’t’ do something because of them being a widow…I want to scream to them ‘Your husband has been dead for 20 frigging years! Sure you miss him, but get a life and DO something for yourself!!’


I've received much more from Find A Grave than I have given and I am eternally grateful for this. Through Find A Grave, I've 'met' some pretty awesome ancestors who I'd love to sit down with them and have a long chat.....Other's, I've 'met' sure are interesting and were very successful criminals.

Never hesitate to write me about a memorial or transferring one to you. If they are not my immediate ancestors, then I am happy to oblige.
Ruth
Proudly from Amarillo, Texas
~~
~~