Professional statistician, specializing in environmental and wildlife/fisheries statistics. Retired from NC Department of Environmental Quality (state government agency).
Hobby family history researcher since the 1970s.

Principles

¶ CERTIFICATE Images:
Although I don't encourage the practice, I do usually allow death certificates and other legal documents (limited to 1 or 2 pages) to be attached to a memorial as photos, in lower priority than images of the person, family or burial monument. I prefer to transcribe the important details in a concise narrative-style bio, including a source citation (and a disclaimer about inaccuracies, when appropriate).

¶ JUNK Edit Suggestions:
Cemetery records often provide only the burial date and age of the person buried. It is not accurate to infer that the year of birth is exactly equal to the year of burial or death minus the age in whole years. I may reject edit suggestions that present that calculation and ask me to store the result in the Find A Grave memorial birth date field. Please be able to validate date edit suggestions with acceptable sources such as the date recorded on a birth or death certificate, an identification document that shows the explicit date, or a reasonably legible photo of the date inscribed on the grave marker.
I am usually willing to discuss unvalidated, estimated or approximate birth dates in the memorial's Bio. Communicate with me if that's desired.

¶ OBITUARIES (PROPRIETARY)
Obituaries published by a funeral provider or a newspaper are typically protected by copyright laws and generally should not be copied verbatim in a Memorial Bio. Also, if an obit text submitted to me identifies any living (and unfamous) person by name, I will not accept (any of) the content in the bio. The best approach for contributing information found in an obit is the contributor restate the information in your own words; or simply cite an information source that the reader can consult (DO NOT link or display a website URL--unless ancestry.com owns it!). Please make sure every event mentioned that will have taken place before the Memorial is published is grammatically described as having happened in the past. Try to list the significant life events in chronological order (one's death happens last, or next-to-last before burial, not first).

¶ PHOTO Images, Use of:
If you are interested in copying an image I have posted, be aware that it may have usage restrictions. Please check the photo caption for attribution information, copyright notices or other applicable conditions for permission. Contact me directly if there are any questions about a photo.

¶ TRANSFERRING a Memorial:
I will usually accept requests to transfer my memorials to another Find A Grave member, without limiting to only those that are required by Find A Grave lineal relationship guidelines. As a courtesy, please go back to the memorial and make your request by using the [Suggest Edits] button followed by [Suggest Other Corrections] instead of leaving the message here on my profile page.

Professional statistician, specializing in environmental and wildlife/fisheries statistics. Retired from NC Department of Environmental Quality (state government agency).
Hobby family history researcher since the 1970s.

Principles

¶ CERTIFICATE Images:
Although I don't encourage the practice, I do usually allow death certificates and other legal documents (limited to 1 or 2 pages) to be attached to a memorial as photos, in lower priority than images of the person, family or burial monument. I prefer to transcribe the important details in a concise narrative-style bio, including a source citation (and a disclaimer about inaccuracies, when appropriate).

¶ JUNK Edit Suggestions:
Cemetery records often provide only the burial date and age of the person buried. It is not accurate to infer that the year of birth is exactly equal to the year of burial or death minus the age in whole years. I may reject edit suggestions that present that calculation and ask me to store the result in the Find A Grave memorial birth date field. Please be able to validate date edit suggestions with acceptable sources such as the date recorded on a birth or death certificate, an identification document that shows the explicit date, or a reasonably legible photo of the date inscribed on the grave marker.
I am usually willing to discuss unvalidated, estimated or approximate birth dates in the memorial's Bio. Communicate with me if that's desired.

¶ OBITUARIES (PROPRIETARY)
Obituaries published by a funeral provider or a newspaper are typically protected by copyright laws and generally should not be copied verbatim in a Memorial Bio. Also, if an obit text submitted to me identifies any living (and unfamous) person by name, I will not accept (any of) the content in the bio. The best approach for contributing information found in an obit is the contributor restate the information in your own words; or simply cite an information source that the reader can consult (DO NOT link or display a website URL--unless ancestry.com owns it!). Please make sure every event mentioned that will have taken place before the Memorial is published is grammatically described as having happened in the past. Try to list the significant life events in chronological order (one's death happens last, or next-to-last before burial, not first).

¶ PHOTO Images, Use of:
If you are interested in copying an image I have posted, be aware that it may have usage restrictions. Please check the photo caption for attribution information, copyright notices or other applicable conditions for permission. Contact me directly if there are any questions about a photo.

¶ TRANSFERRING a Memorial:
I will usually accept requests to transfer my memorials to another Find A Grave member, without limiting to only those that are required by Find A Grave lineal relationship guidelines. As a courtesy, please go back to the memorial and make your request by using the [Suggest Edits] button followed by [Suggest Other Corrections] instead of leaving the message here on my profile page.