Just be aware of a Find a Grave issue for famous people

Question

Recently I noticed a number of memorial merges on Find a Grave for US President's families.   What it looks like is that "someone" did not understand the difference between a cenotaph (A memorial to a person that is buried elsewhere) and an actual burial.   I have sent some notes to memorial managers to try to straighten this out.   But, one more reason that Find A Grave can be misleading.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38503335/rutherford-b_-hayes

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/464/rutherford-b_-hayes   

Comments

Just realized that those are incorrect also....the original burial site is listed as the cenotaph......

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Doesn't surprise me - I believe that FAG has instituted a automatic acceptance policy that if someone has presented a suggestion, the profile manager either accepts it within 30 days or else it's automatically applied without the PM's consent. It does help when valid changes are submitted but it's utterly useless and damaging when it's not.

I doubt that merges are also automatic within 30 days, but if they are, then that would make me very nervous about the validity of their data.

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Yes, FAG has instituted an automatic acceptance policy for suggestions. I've had several accepted by them in that manner. I don't know the details. Today found yet another ancestor whose life was shortened by a mere 37 years at FAG...five minutes of research could have found the obit in Iowa's official state paper of record.

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I had the same thing with a decades difference.  The full dates were clearly on the gravestone, so no research was needed.  Find A Grave uses the dates on the gravestone and will only add something in the biography if sources show it is different.

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And we continue to have a wikitree-fag error/suggestion why?

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In many cases, particularly those involving the Stetson family (the one I work on mostly) the Find A Grave information is a repeat of what O.F. Stetson and Mr. Barry gathered and which is found in "The Descendants of Cornet Robert Stetson."

Sometimes they give the citation, but usually the only giveaway is that I have the book open to the correct page, etc. and see where they got the information. FAG is good for getting parent's information on people where the Stetsons didn't record much of that information.

However, I was able to track down and actually visit some of the Stetson family sites in Maine and it started with following the family trail thru FAG.

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Some merges can be almost instantaneous if the two are duplicates in the same cemetery. You can't merge more than two at a time though. Usually, the earlier memorial should be merged to, but if the more recent memorial will be merged to if it has more work.

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I have found plenty of typo errors in wiki tree using the FAG suggestions,  just like I find some in Find a Grave pages.  

Frequently dates are valid on gravestones and Find A Grave and the wiki tree isn't sourced, so we can find sources to add to wikitree and get the dates corrected on either side. Without the suggestions, things wouldn't get corrected on either side.

I submit changes to Find A Grave all the time, especially when I don't see the spouse but wikitree has the page for both in the cemetery.  Easy fix to get spouse or kids added to that page and Find A Grave is more beneficial to everyone.

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Sometimes we all start to type too fast, and flip dates, etc.

I always have to go back and re-read my entries to make sure they make sense.... I even have an "edited for clarity" line I use as the reason for the change.

rsl

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Robin, Thanks for the new info about FAG.  dusty

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@ Dusty....thanks

Answer 1

The Warren family is a mess on FAG.  Thomas Warren is behind a couple of presidents.  Obama and Carter.  Through William Carter of Surry.  I would not trust FAG these lines already need serious verification of all sourses.  And FAG has alot of family myth in those lines.