Find A Grave Is Making Grave Mistakes
Posted on January 20th, 2010 by Carol
I’m completely baffled by the FindAGrave site. Last night a lady wouldn’t transfer my father-in-law’s memorial (he is not deceased) to me; and today I asked for a transfer of John Whitmore, my husband’s GG-Grf and Medal of Honor Recipient, and was denied that too. Is there some (monetary?) “award” for people who have the most memorials under their belt? The dates on my FIL’s memorial are wrong and I was going to correct them, as well as add more photos. This woman categorically would not give me the memorial.
I got a nasty email from Find A Grave “Robert” today telling me that I had nabbed the memorial gravestone picture from the site, when it was my husband that took the photo. When I asked the submitter Kent Kooi to transfer John Whitmore to me, he said John had been designated as ‘famous’ and the FAG people wouldn’t let him! Hey, FAG people, you don’t OWN our ancestors!
I was threatened by Robert with being kicked off the site (no, I was NOT rude to them) and made to feel like a criminal. Here’s the kicker. Unknowingly, I added John Whitmore’s info in a memorial last night with correct information on his death date. (The site has it as it appears on the gravestone, which is WRONG and was a mistake done by the Medal of Honor Historical Society when they submitted the info to the VA). Today, they have used my info on the memorial, but told me to (essentially) take a hike.
A couple years ago I added my cousin William Livingston Holmes to the site and said he was “famous” and told them where he was buried. Wm. Holmes was the first sheriff of Clackamas County, Oregon. Wouldn’t you think he was a bit famous? No, they didn’t think so. Someone has their priorities a bit skewed in my humble opinion.
This is a great site, but after these two incidents, I’m having second thoughts about adding more memorials. Has anyone else had any problems like this with Find A Grave? I’ve been a member for 7+ years and this is a new one on me.
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Filed under: Civil War, Genealogy, History
Wow – I’ve never had any problems with the website. I hope these problems get resolved ASAP because FindAGrave is a wonderful website
I’m surprised the admin won’t force the person to transfer your father-in-law’s memorial, that’s within the range of relationship where they are supposed to be required to hand it over.
From the FAQ
Transfer requests should be for direct relatives within four generations, this would be your siblings, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Keep in mind that the original contributor may also be related to the memorial and may not want to make the transfer. You may certainly request the transfer of memorials beyond the four generations, but the original contributor may choose not to transfer (the original contributor should make any corrections and add any addional information you have for that memorial, such as links to parents and spouses).
If the memorial in question is a direct relative (within four generations-siblings, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents) to you, and the original submitter is not family, then your wishes supersede theirs under our “Family First” policy. If they refuse to transfer your relative to you, contact the administration and we will work on it for you.
Twitter: geneaphile
I, too, am surprised, Carol. I’ve been a contributor for almost ten years and while I have been ignored a couple of times, for the most part I haven’t had a problem getting memorials edited or turned over to me. The most outrageous problem is with the photo. I do hope you will contact the administrators to get things resolved. And do keep us posted! There are many active contributors to Find A Grave among the GB community.
Twitter: webduck
I will kindly ask the admin to transfer my father-in-law to me and see if they will do so. It shouldn’t be a problem if he is directly related.
Kent Kooi, who created the memorial for John Whitmore didn’t say he was a relative, and explained to me in emails that he would transfer the memorial but that once some one is famous the FAG site has control. As long as the information for John is correct, or near correct, there’s no sense me getting in a further snit about it.
As for William Livingston Holmes being ‘famous’, it seems funny to me that they wouldn’t give him his due since he was on the original OR trail in 1843, was the first sheriff, and the county at the time covered parts of WA and OR. He might not be as famous to this generation, but he is in history.
I love the Find A Grave site too, and it is very disappointing to have these things happening. If they could happen to me, they could happen to many others. That is most likely not the purpose of the site.
Thank you all for leaving your comments and viewpoints.
I am so sorry to hear that. I am always willing to add information from people or transfer ownership it they closely related.
What a shame. I’ve always thought it was a great place.
I do always wonder who decides whose “famous” or not.
Twitter: webduck
The latest on the issue of my father-in-law’s memorial is that I contacted “Katrina” at FAG and asked how we could solve the problem so all parties are happy. She transferred the memorial to me, and kept the creator the same person who was snippy with me. That was fine with me, but we have quite a few people in that cemetery with other surnames than Wilkerson, and this same lady did the creation of many of them. I doubt she will give any more to me, but I’m worried that she won’t even add info for me either. It makes me feel like I don’t even want to try.
So, “famous” people are the property of FAG? Who decides if they are famous?
Seems like an odd rule, and I’m wondering what the reasoning behind it is.
Twitter: webduck
I’m not sure if it was my questions or not, but there is a new thread in Famous Bios in the forums with a link to a page called Famous Bio Guidelines. That link isn’t new, but they are addressing the topic of “upgrading” bios to famous from un-famous.