Having devoted a significant portion of her life to genealogical research and historic preservation, my mother passed on a wealth family history information to our family, some of wish I hope to share by augmenting Find A Grave ("FG") memorials.

As a reminder, although FG does not discourage the "indexing" of deceased individuals through obituaries, it asks that any memorializing through newspapers or other third-party sources be done with "full respect of copyright" law. That means having the copyright owner's permission before reproducing another's original work.

The author of an obituary that constitutes an original, creative work, i.e., something more than a listing of basic biographic facts like birth and death dates, has a copyright in that work. The copyright owner may transfer the copyright, grant a license for another to use the work for a specific purpose, or waive the copyright. The fact that an obituary has been published in print or on-line and is accessible to "the public" does not mean the copyright has been waived. Nor does it mean that the work has been transformed into some sort of "public domain" document that can be freely reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder.

Requests to add copyrighted materials to memorials, e.g., "cutting and pasting" the text from newspaper obituaries, will be denied absent proof of authorization by the copyright owner. Similarly, images of copyrighted materials posted to memorials will be reported to FG and/or pushed off the landing page of the memorial.

In addition, FG asks those who memorialize to "refrain from adding information about living people." Obituaries often contain personal information about living individuals. Accordingly, even if the copyright owner permits an obituary to be republished on FG, the obituary should be edited to comply with FG standards.

Although FG is a great resource for genealogical data, biographies should be in narrative form, not a mere listing of facts. Setting forth these facts in a narrative will better honor the individual and perhaps help others understand the sources, uncertainties, incompleteness, or other limitations of the data.

Finally, please let me know if photographs of tombstones or markers that I have taken do not appear properly orientated.

Having devoted a significant portion of her life to genealogical research and historic preservation, my mother passed on a wealth family history information to our family, some of wish I hope to share by augmenting Find A Grave ("FG") memorials.

As a reminder, although FG does not discourage the "indexing" of deceased individuals through obituaries, it asks that any memorializing through newspapers or other third-party sources be done with "full respect of copyright" law. That means having the copyright owner's permission before reproducing another's original work.

The author of an obituary that constitutes an original, creative work, i.e., something more than a listing of basic biographic facts like birth and death dates, has a copyright in that work. The copyright owner may transfer the copyright, grant a license for another to use the work for a specific purpose, or waive the copyright. The fact that an obituary has been published in print or on-line and is accessible to "the public" does not mean the copyright has been waived. Nor does it mean that the work has been transformed into some sort of "public domain" document that can be freely reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder.

Requests to add copyrighted materials to memorials, e.g., "cutting and pasting" the text from newspaper obituaries, will be denied absent proof of authorization by the copyright owner. Similarly, images of copyrighted materials posted to memorials will be reported to FG and/or pushed off the landing page of the memorial.

In addition, FG asks those who memorialize to "refrain from adding information about living people." Obituaries often contain personal information about living individuals. Accordingly, even if the copyright owner permits an obituary to be republished on FG, the obituary should be edited to comply with FG standards.

Although FG is a great resource for genealogical data, biographies should be in narrative form, not a mere listing of facts. Setting forth these facts in a narrative will better honor the individual and perhaps help others understand the sources, uncertainties, incompleteness, or other limitations of the data.

Finally, please let me know if photographs of tombstones or markers that I have taken do not appear properly orientated.