Challenge of the Week: Add missing Find A Grave connections between existing profiles

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

Aleš's WikiTree+ data analysis has found thousands of people who are connected as parents and children or spouses on Wikidata pages or Find A Grave memorials, but are not connected on WikiTree even though they both have profiles.

The Wikidata hints can be difficult to address. The Find A Grave hints are much more abundant and easier to handle.

For example, here's how to handle items on the table for FindAGrave - Possible mother (1800-1899), i.e. 19th century mother-child connections.

Look in the Relation (Rel.) column for any child and mother pair and click the links to open their WikiTree profiles. Then click the links below those to open their Find A Grave memorials. You might want to right-click the links and keep all four open in separate tabs to review them.

Not all the information on Find A Grave is reliable. If there is a photo of a single gravestone that connects the mother and child, you can use that as your only source to connect them. Otherwise, either look for other sources to verify the connection, or mark the relationship as uncertain and add a Research Notes section on the child's profile saying that the relationship is based on Find A Grave and has not been independently verified.

Will you work on some of these with us? If so, or if you have any questions, please post below.

Thanks for helping!

Comments

Challenge is active.

Answer 1

If it hasn't been proposed could we add that the single gravemarker with a mother and child's name should probably be investigated past that? Or maybe for newer members a reminder on checking to see if profiles exist as I've had a few weird connections made lately just because the first names matched one another for two people...but in reality they weren't part of the family at all and then another case where someone created over 30 duplicates (just that I found in my direct line and managed profiles) of 18th-19th century ancestors and relatives where the dates/locations /names were all the same or generalized and FindaGrave was the only source noted- but if a comparison / match check were done they would have definitely shown up as matches to investigate. I hope I am articulating this correctly because I am all for this project and honestly have tried to do this nearly every week for over two years but it just hit me maybe a reminder here would help. If I am off base or out of line I sincerely apologize as again, I am not criticizing but trying to save everyone time and effort. Cheers!

Comments

We certainly need more than just a single headstone to make this decision .

Given the naming patterns that were/are often used, or a general tendency to name children after family members, it is easily possible to make mistakes.

In a family I am currently researching, there are 3 sons named John, James and Jacob, all living in the same area sometimes only listed on a census by the initial J.

One married an Elizabeth, she died then he married Margaret, another married an Elizabeth, and it seems that their mother was named Elizabeth.

It can be far more complicated than it seems.

Answer 2

I do this as a matter of course ... and I update FaG whenever I have links to other family that are not on that pages. (I've also been known to merge people on Family Search too.)

There are so many profiles out there missing data that would fill in more family history... and so little time to deal with all of them.

rsl

Answer 3

This looks fun. I'm in!

Answer 4

I just did this last month and added about a dozen distant cousins to my tree.

I'm in. I'll find more.

Answer 5

I would like to participate

Answer 6

I will work on these.

Answer 7

I would like to participate.

Answer 8

I am wanting to help, but have yet to receive editor authorization. Also working on 'prominent' organized crime surnames where all family members (and in laws) have have died. This is a terrific project for me.

Answer 9

I absolutely LOVE this challenge!!!  I teach free classes on Find A Grave and how to use it, the right ways!!!  Near the end of the class, I include an entire segment on Wikitree and why it is important, not only free.  

Thank you for doing this!

Answer 10

Forgot to say to add me!

Answer 11

I'll see what I can do for some of these.

Answer 12

I will give it a try.

Answer 13

Hi Eowyn and Ales, I have been connecting between our Tree and FindAGrave for the past several years. I have done some DataDoctoring as well when I find birth/death dates out of sync and my OCD kicks in when I find no biography on Grave! The downside is that it is up to the FindAGrave manager to accept my revisions/biography (or not). Never, never, never, never give up, though! Without our ancestors, where would we be? We at least owe them a bit of history given what they gave us.