Question about the Wikitree sourcer...

Question

Why does the app Wikitree Sourcer say "Memorial" for FindAGrave sources instead of "Burial"? Just curious if there's a reason I'm missing!

Answer 1

Find-a-Grave calls their pages "Memorials" and many of them don't involve burials, they are profiles of individuals unconnected to a cemetery burial.

Comments

When I added support for Find-a-Grave back in April 2022 I thought a bit about how classify it. "Burial" did not seem appropriate since sometimes it is a cremation and sometimes, as Kathie says, the page doesn't mention a burial, citation or gravestone. So "Memorial" seems the most appropriate. If you look at the very bottom of a Find-a-Grave page there is a "Source citation" button. They use the text "memorial page for ...".

I guess Sourcer could try to be smarter and, if the memorial page has a "Burial" line, classify it as a burial.

---

I have a fair few profiles where a person has multiple memorials, eg people who died in a ship sinking military or civil (Titanic, Battle of Justland), aircraft crashes and losses, or KIA or MIA in war. And also sometimes mentioned on someone elses headstone (including living children or partners).
 Sourcer provides a generic "safe" text narrative but like all such narratives it requires review by the user and if required, editing to improve accuracy.
 So "memorial" can be changed to "Buried" if the source confirms that was actually the case, in others it might become "cremated and ashes...." etc.

---

One of my great-grandfather's, who was cremated, requested his ashes be split in two: one-half to be interred with his parents in the West Nottingham Cemetery, Cecil County, Maryland where earlier generations of his family also remain. The other half to be interred in the Los Angeles, California family crypt, the town they last settled. He has two Find-A-Grave Memorials recording both locations, each containing an explanation about the other. I am fully aware of the drawbacks the Find-A-Grave web-site can sometimes represent (misinterpreted gavestones, etc.) but I am also grateful for when they get it right. The web-site itself is a wonderful communication tool about peoples death, burial, or cremation, and the location of their remains. Just like with my great-grandfather.