What I especially enjoy doing is trying to find the missing memorials listed as "No grave photo" for a specific cemetery, one at a time. I work together with my boyfriend who is also a member. Although I've been a member for only a year, I have assisted with locating memorials to be photographed for an additional 2 years. We have worked hard on our local cemeteries and are branching out to other areas (sometimes taking short road trips and spending the day at other Vermont cemeteries.) We do this with a lot of different types of searches both physically and on the computer. It's so exciting to find them as it is like a giant scavenger hunt.

We have merged several duplicates including up to 3 duplicates of same person a few times. Others need a lot of research to be moved to their correct cemetery location. Sometimes this means traveling to other cemeteries to physically locate where the memorial really is. In 1 year we have already relocated 51 memorials to their correct cemetery, and this is not counting at least a couple hundred more merges.

For some cemeteries I have gone thru each memorial listing making sure that info on the gravestone photo matches the memorial. I've put in numerous edits (up to 1,271 edits). I do realize that occasionally the stone dates will be slightly off as well, but often there are errors from reading due to the years of the different fonts used (this is where enlarging the photos on my computer really helps). Often, I will have to search birth and death records to verify the correct dates. Occasionally I have also found that incorrect photos have been attached to memorials and I have messaged the contributor to please change or delete the wrong photo (this would be when it is clearly someone else's memorial stone attached in error- sometimes with the same name).

When we find the memorials, we carefully clean the dirt and moss off with a nylon brush that won't damage the stones. Also, we pull any grass away that will block the writing. We like to be able to read the important information that is on the stone. It's amazing that cleaning the dirt off with a nylon brush will bring the stone back to looking almost new at times. We are very careful as to not damage the memorial in any way. For hard-to-read stones, spraying water on the writing and snapping a photo while it's wet works amazingly well. This is a trick a fellow Find-A-Grave contributor taught us.

I ask that when creating a memorial please be careful about which cemetery you enter the memorial. We have found errors for common cemetery name (such as Elmwood) but in the wrong town, or even the wrong state. For those that passed away during the winter months, their remains are often stored in a vault at one cemetery and then buried at another cemetery, in the Spring, quite possibly in a different town. Obituaries often say where someone will later be buried when they are stored in a vault. If you are not positive that someone was buried in a certain cemetery, please list them as "Burial unknown". It's a lot harder to prove that they aren't there and causes a lot of physically searching for what may not be there at all.

I am very open to any other suggestions that anyone has as well in getting good photos, research info and anything else that may be useful to us. Please do not feel insulted if I send you edits for minor changes, such as adding a middle initial that's on the stone and that is missing from the memorial. I try to get the information to match the stone as much as possible so that there is as much detail available as possible for those searching for relatives.

If you would like me to transfer a memorial to you, I would gladly transfer to you if it's not one of my family members. I will transfer my family members memorials only to another family member that is closer in relation than I am.

What I especially enjoy doing is trying to find the missing memorials listed as "No grave photo" for a specific cemetery, one at a time. I work together with my boyfriend who is also a member. Although I've been a member for only a year, I have assisted with locating memorials to be photographed for an additional 2 years. We have worked hard on our local cemeteries and are branching out to other areas (sometimes taking short road trips and spending the day at other Vermont cemeteries.) We do this with a lot of different types of searches both physically and on the computer. It's so exciting to find them as it is like a giant scavenger hunt.

We have merged several duplicates including up to 3 duplicates of same person a few times. Others need a lot of research to be moved to their correct cemetery location. Sometimes this means traveling to other cemeteries to physically locate where the memorial really is. In 1 year we have already relocated 51 memorials to their correct cemetery, and this is not counting at least a couple hundred more merges.

For some cemeteries I have gone thru each memorial listing making sure that info on the gravestone photo matches the memorial. I've put in numerous edits (up to 1,271 edits). I do realize that occasionally the stone dates will be slightly off as well, but often there are errors from reading due to the years of the different fonts used (this is where enlarging the photos on my computer really helps). Often, I will have to search birth and death records to verify the correct dates. Occasionally I have also found that incorrect photos have been attached to memorials and I have messaged the contributor to please change or delete the wrong photo (this would be when it is clearly someone else's memorial stone attached in error- sometimes with the same name).

When we find the memorials, we carefully clean the dirt and moss off with a nylon brush that won't damage the stones. Also, we pull any grass away that will block the writing. We like to be able to read the important information that is on the stone. It's amazing that cleaning the dirt off with a nylon brush will bring the stone back to looking almost new at times. We are very careful as to not damage the memorial in any way. For hard-to-read stones, spraying water on the writing and snapping a photo while it's wet works amazingly well. This is a trick a fellow Find-A-Grave contributor taught us.

I ask that when creating a memorial please be careful about which cemetery you enter the memorial. We have found errors for common cemetery name (such as Elmwood) but in the wrong town, or even the wrong state. For those that passed away during the winter months, their remains are often stored in a vault at one cemetery and then buried at another cemetery, in the Spring, quite possibly in a different town. Obituaries often say where someone will later be buried when they are stored in a vault. If you are not positive that someone was buried in a certain cemetery, please list them as "Burial unknown". It's a lot harder to prove that they aren't there and causes a lot of physically searching for what may not be there at all.

I am very open to any other suggestions that anyone has as well in getting good photos, research info and anything else that may be useful to us. Please do not feel insulted if I send you edits for minor changes, such as adding a middle initial that's on the stone and that is missing from the memorial. I try to get the information to match the stone as much as possible so that there is as much detail available as possible for those searching for relatives.

If you would like me to transfer a memorial to you, I would gladly transfer to you if it's not one of my family members. I will transfer my family members memorials only to another family member that is closer in relation than I am.