Find A Grave - the Good and the Bad

Find-A-Grave has been active for more than 20 years, first appearing online way back in 1995. Originally it consisted of records of celebrities and their burial sites and was created by Jim Tipton, an American with a passion for visiting the graves of the rich and famous.

As the site grew it expanded to include the graves of non-celebrities and moved from the United States to the rest of the world.

As the popularity of the site took off Tipton sold the Find A Grave to Ancestry. The site now contains more than 75 million photos and over 170 million burial records.

The vast majority of contributors on Find A Grave have the best of intentions — to help others. At its best, the site can be a boon for Family History researchers.  Being able to view the grave/headstone of a relative buried overseas or in a place we cannot easily access ourselves is a huge treat.  That this website is completely free makes it even better.  Several times I have been delighted to find a relative has a memorial on Find-A-Grave, complete with dates and details.  Always I am amazed at the generosity of people out there, giving their time to help make researching easier for others.

Within the Find-A-Grave community, however, there has emerged a small group of users who seem more motivated by competition. The top contributors have added over 200,000 memorials each, and there are some who have over a million each.

Issues have arisen with the webpage of users - all volunteers - who in their haste to add to their count of memorials, have forgotten that not everyone wants their recently deceased loved ones to have an online memorial, especially one added and controlled by a complete stranger.  In the worst cases, a Find-A-Grave obituary has been posted online before all the individual's family members have even been notified.  Then there are issues of accuracy - and how to get inaccurate information corrected of removed.

Several suggestions have been made to create a moratorium on non-family-members posting memorials for the recently-deceased on Find A Grave for at least some time to give the families of those involved a chance to deal with a loved one’s death.  To date no steps seem to have been made in this direction.

 

 

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines. 

Inside this month's issue

• Lost in the census Discover the substitute records you can use to find ancestors who are missing from the census
• Liverpool through a lens What the Edward Chambré Hardman collection reveals about the city's history
• Pleasure gardens Felicity Day takes a look at the decadent and sometimes dangerous world of 18th century pleasure gardens
• Reader story Alison Bruce on her research into Victorian murders
• Best websites Discover your family in company archives
• Plus: The history of Victorian cemeteries, the lives of brass workers, how to find property records on TheGenealogist and much more...

 

Irish Lives Remembered

The latest issue of the free quarterly online Irish Family History magazine 'Irish Lives Remembered' is out now.   The magazine can be downloaded and read on your computer or tablet.

Articles: 

• Fiona Fitzsimons – President Joe Biden’s Irish Ancestry. Part 3. The Maternal Mayo Lines
• Michael McShane and Catherine Kerr - Data-Mining for Family History in County Cavan: Searchable, Accessible, and Accurate Records on Cavantownlands.com
• Jacqueline Gallup – Duchas: An Invaluable Resource for Folklore and for Family Historians. Part III. The Hearth is the Heart
• Greg Mahony – A Centenary Celebration of Captain Frank Hurley (1891–1921): 3rd West Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army
• Stephen Callaghan – Tracing the Story of Two Leinster Regiment Soldiers from a Photo Bought Online
• Maurice Gleeson – Unknown Parentage Cases. The Secret Benefits of 23andMe
• Mark Grace – A Taste of Mayo: Methodology and Early DNA Investigations into the Irish Roots of an English Black Country Family
• Paul MacCotter – The Barretts of County Cork. Part Two: The Later History
• Eamonn P. Kelly – Brigid: Pagan Goddess and Christian Saint
• Brigit McCone – Irish Involvement in the Congo
• Nathan Mannion – William Lefroy: Journalist, Alpinist, Freemason, and Dean
• Catherine Holmes – Stitch by Stitch and Word by Word: Finding the Women of the 19th Century Dun Emer and Cuala Arts and Crafts Industries (South Dublin)
• Book Review - A Review of The Fall of the Fitzmaurices: The Demise of Kerry’s First Family [Patrick Roycroft reviews the latest book by Kay Caball]
• Book Excerpt – The Fall of the Fitzmaurices: The Demise of Kerry’s First Family (2020, North Kerry Literary Trust) by Kay Caball
• The Genealogical Publishing Company Book Excerpt – O’Sullivan (Ó Súilleabháin). The Earliest Irish Royal Family. History and Genealogy (2013, third edition 2020) by William Randolph McCreight

Ancestry Library Edition Home Access

It has been announced that home access to Ancestry Library Edition will continue until 31 December 2021.  Ancestry made the decision back in April 2020 to allow this database, normally only accessed in the library buildings using our public PCs or wi-fi, to be accessed from home while the CoronaVirus pandemic impacted library access for many.  So Campaspe Library members can continue to access this fantastic genealogical resource from home.

To access Ancestry Library Edition, you need to go to the Campaspe Regional Library web page at https://www.campaspe.vic.gov.au/library  On the left hand column, click on 'Genealogy' and then on 'Databases'.  The link for Ancestry Library Edition from home is at the top right.  You will be prompted to log in using your library card number and PIN, then follow the prompts to Ancestry's page and continue researching your family history from the comfort of home.

 

For many genealogists who have been restricted close to home during the pandemic, this free access to the Ancestry database through their local library membership has been a fantastic opportunity to keep researching from home.  A huge thank you to Ancestry for making their database available to so many.

Ancestry Time

Don't forget to tune in to Ancestry Time tonight,starting at 7.00pm AEST.  While the theme is 'Family History Advice for Beginners', there is always more to learn and who knows what little nuggets of gold may come up?  There is always something to learn and so many friendly and helpful genealogists out there who are willing to offer others a bit of advice.

The Hidden Branch

The Hidden Branch is a new generation of Genealogists who are growing up during the digital age.  They have just launched their website https://thehiddenbranch.com/ and are active on social media.  

On their website they state : "We advocate for Gen Z researchers (born from 1995 to 2010) in the field of genealogy.  We publish articles, podcasts, and videos on research skills, topics, and more in order to give a bigger voice to the Gen Z genealogists in the field, as well as help others further their education in genealogy."

For younger genealogists this is a wonderful resource that can put them in contact with people their own age who have also developed an interest in their family history young - something I wish had been around when I started my own research at 16 and was constantly met with astonishment that I was interested in such a topic.

I will be watching this group with interest and wish them success in sharing their interest with other Gen Zs.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines.

Inside this month’s issue

• Parish registers online
  Discover your ancestors’ baptisms, marriages and burials with our updated region-by-region guide to UK parish registers
• Canadian war brides
  John D Reid uncovers the stories of the British women who travelled to Canada after the Second World War
• Boxing and wrestling
  Sarah Elizabeth Cox grapples with the legendary fighters of Victorian London
• Reader story
  Kyle Ring on tracing his family tree from Trinidad to the Domesday Book
• Best websites
  Discover ancestors who worked as fishermen and whalers
• Plus…
  Finding your ancestors’ hospital records, the lives of felt hatters, how to use WikiTree and much more…

Around Britain

• Dumfries and Galloway
  Our guide to family history from south-west Scotland