How can my father be on the following index?

Question

He is listed on the Global, Find A Grave Index for burials at sea and other selected burial locations,1300- current.  As far as I know, he was never at sea. Who would know more about that than me?

Comments

The key may be the part where it says "and other selected burial locations". Also, how do you know it's him? Howard (C.) Rankin is not exactly an uncommon name.

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Howard

Do you know who added that source to the profile?

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I added the source because he is/was my father.

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I am trying to understand, why would you add a source that you know that is incorrect?

Is there a direct link to his Grave, that can replace this generalized source?

I found the following on FindAGrave - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32138326/howard-crosby-rankin

If this is your Father it might be better to add this link to his profile.

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Both of them are my father. I was curious as to how anyone could have thought he was buried at sea.

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Actually, the source was correct. The title of the source is what I found interesting.

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The key here is "and other selected burial locations." I've found people listed there that were just regular cemetery findagrave memorials.  Unless the memorial itself claims he was buried at sea, there's no problem.

Answer 1

No offense, what part of father did you not get?

Answer 2

The first problem is that Find A Grave is very unreliable and should not be counted as a source but aside from that with only a decade range for the birth and no actual location and the same for death date and location any search would have too many listings for different people to be any help. You need to find out more about what you do know first. You were in your 30's when he died so you should be able to add the location of his death, at least the country, and that would narrow down the list of possibilities. FAG is a seperate site that also has all of their information added by volunteers so if you have a problem with their data you should take it up with them and not us.

Comments

I agree with you on that point. Thank you,Dale. I know for a fact that he was not buried at sea. I don't think Mobile,Alabama is that much of a select city.

Answer 3

I have found lots of names in that index and none were buried at sea.  I think it just is an index of Find A Grave memorials where burial location is unknown.   Members  are just adding information about people they knew had lived... but do not have a burial location.   My own g grandfather according to a newspaper at the time was buried in a cemetery  in Georgia but there is no marker and several unmarked graves there.

Comments

You might be right. However, my father has a known burial locations. I attended the funeral.