I would like to thank all the - Find a Grave - volunteers who over the years have put in countless hours to make this site a potential important research tool as they simply do amazing work.

Areas of Interest:
I will gladly aid any member who contacts me, as over the last 30 years I have developed expertise in researching the early founding families in the Newark/Orange, NJ area including the: Baldwins, Condits, Cranes, Freemans, Garthwaites, Harrisons and Smiths. In addition to the founding families mentioned above, I have a particular interest in tracing the descendants of James Smith (abt 1665-1727) who came from Scotland in abt 1680 and settled in Orange, Essex, New Jersey.

Though I have an extensive experience in performing genealogical research I manage few memorials. The reason for this is my early ancestors and associated families are buried in cemeteries managed by a select few managers who are extremely reluctant to accept or even acknowledge transfer requests of my direct descendants more than 4 generations removed even though they are not related to them. (Yes, I know about the Find A Grave transfer policy).

Members need to be aware Find a Grave has moved beyond its original mission "to help people from all over the world to find, record and present final disposition (burial location) information as a virtual cemetery experience" to instead become for many users a primary source of genealogical information. Like it not, this mission creep now results in the proliferation of undocumented and inaccurate data being spread across the web much like Ancestry since most users of the popular genealogical sites rarely if ever fact-check the information posted on Find A Grave. No matter how many disclaimers are made by memorial managers they have to accept this fact.

I know this is easier said than done, but there are steps that can be taken to rectify the inaccurate data problem found at the "Find A Grave" site by by using the following two-step process:
(1st) locate where a person is buried
(2nd) insure accurate factual, links and bio data is included.
To accomplish this, you need to combine the skills of the grave marker location specialist with those of the content experts. This combing of forces can only be done if managers are more willing to transfer memorials to the content experts.

I would like to thank all the - Find a Grave - volunteers who over the years have put in countless hours to make this site a potential important research tool as they simply do amazing work.

Areas of Interest:
I will gladly aid any member who contacts me, as over the last 30 years I have developed expertise in researching the early founding families in the Newark/Orange, NJ area including the: Baldwins, Condits, Cranes, Freemans, Garthwaites, Harrisons and Smiths. In addition to the founding families mentioned above, I have a particular interest in tracing the descendants of James Smith (abt 1665-1727) who came from Scotland in abt 1680 and settled in Orange, Essex, New Jersey.

Though I have an extensive experience in performing genealogical research I manage few memorials. The reason for this is my early ancestors and associated families are buried in cemeteries managed by a select few managers who are extremely reluctant to accept or even acknowledge transfer requests of my direct descendants more than 4 generations removed even though they are not related to them. (Yes, I know about the Find A Grave transfer policy).

Members need to be aware Find a Grave has moved beyond its original mission "to help people from all over the world to find, record and present final disposition (burial location) information as a virtual cemetery experience" to instead become for many users a primary source of genealogical information. Like it not, this mission creep now results in the proliferation of undocumented and inaccurate data being spread across the web much like Ancestry since most users of the popular genealogical sites rarely if ever fact-check the information posted on Find A Grave. No matter how many disclaimers are made by memorial managers they have to accept this fact.

I know this is easier said than done, but there are steps that can be taken to rectify the inaccurate data problem found at the "Find A Grave" site by by using the following two-step process:
(1st) locate where a person is buried
(2nd) insure accurate factual, links and bio data is included.
To accomplish this, you need to combine the skills of the grave marker location specialist with those of the content experts. This combing of forces can only be done if managers are more willing to transfer memorials to the content experts.