Find a Grave records
I was real excited when I saw that the source linker showed the cemetery in the place field but soon discovered that most of the time it was the wrong information. There are many, many duplicate cemetery names and the one displayed is the correct cemetery name but in a different location, usually in a different state.
Answers
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@YvonneRenéeFontaine
This is a well known indexing problem with the Find a Grave locations that was first reported in the beginning of June.
The incorrect standardization apparently arose during the migration of records to a new storage platform.
The FamilySearch software engineers are working on a solution.
Several relevant threads can be found by using the Community Search bar and also by clicking on the links listed in this post:0 -
This week, I attached 2 sources for Find a Grave memorials which had one location = the correct location.
One memorial was created in February 2026 and the other in April 2026.
Perhaps this standardization problem is only with older memorials?1 -
@Nyx773 in these 2 cases, was a cemetery present in FS' version of the place? The place always seems to be processed correctly except when FS has attempted to include the cemetery, when FS appears (in many, many if not all cases) to have only looked up the cemetery name, not, as would be appropriate, the full cemetery place as provided by Find a Grave. See
If the cemetery /is/ present in FS' version of the place, is there perhaps only one match on FS Places for that cemetery? It would be great if this issue now turned out to be completely fixed, including retrospectively, but we need a bit more evidence I think.
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@MandyShaw1
In summary:
The example Find a Grave memorials created in 2026 are all indexed correctly.
The examples created in 2025 contain the bug.
In all of the the examples below:
— The cemetery name field is present as a separate "Cemetery" field on the FS source.
— For the 2026 locations which are correct, the "Event Place" field does not contain the cemetery name.
— For all the 2025 incorrect locations: the cemetery name or similar is in the Event Place.
— For the 2025 correct locations:
- the November example has both an Event Place with the cemetery name and without.
- the December examples only is without the cemetery name, all Event Places with the cemetery name are incorrect.
Probably irrelevant:
— All examples are Find a Grave memorials I created (because that was the easiest way to find examples and I place the FS PID on the memorial).
— The "Burial" section on the FS profile Details tab was populated before attaching the source (obviously since I'm the person who created the memorials).
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Memorials created in APRIL 2026:
Here is one of 9 examples for Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois which I attached on on 2 August:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWY3-P9LF?lang=en
The "Event Place" field lists only one town and it is the correct one.
On Find a Grave, this is the only cemetery with the spelling/spacing of "Oak Woods".
The aka name on Find a Grave is "Oakwoods" and there is one other cemetery with that name, but that name/spacing does not appear in the FS source.
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Memorials created in FEBRUARY 2026:
One of 2 examples for Calvary Cemetery in Springfield, Ohio which I attached on 4 August:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWV3-FDV3?lang=en
The "Event Place" field lists only one town and it is the correct one.
There are 1,201 cemeteries on Find a Grave with both "Calvary" and "Cemetery" in their primary or aka name.
There are countless cemeteries that are named just plain "Calvary Cemetery" (I don't know how to narrow the search parameters any further).
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Memorials created in JANUARY 2026:
One of 2 examples for Grandview Cemetery in Export, Pennsylvania which I attached on 11 June:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWV3-648L?lang=en
The "Event Place" field lists only one town and it is the correct one.
There are 120 cemeteries on Find a Grave with both "Grandview" and "Cemetery" in their name.
There are numerous cemeteries that are plain "Grandview Cemetery"
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Memorial created in DECEMBER 2025:
2 examples for Saint Joseph's Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleums in Toms River, New Jersey:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X71H-V6DN?lang=en
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X71H-V6PC?lang=en
Not attached to the FS profiles yet. Note: the hints on both profiles state Wisconsin.
The FS source lists 10 Event Places.
9 of which have "Saint Joseph's Catholic Cemetery" (lacking "and Mausoleums") in the Event Place field and they are all incorrect.
The one Event Place which does not have the cemetery name in the location name is the correct location.
This is the only cemetery on Find a Grave with the specific name of "Saint Joseph's Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleums".
There are 216 cemeteries listed when searching for just "Saint Joseph's Catholic Cemetery".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Memorial created in NOVEMBER 2025:
One example for West Newton Cemetery in West Newton, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania which I attached on 11 June:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7BD-CK49?lang=en
6 Event Places are listed.
The 4 incorrect Event Places contain "West Newton Cemetery" in the Event Place field.
There are 2 correct Event Places, one does have "West Newton Cemetery" and one does not.
There are 9 cemeteries on Find a Grave with "West", "Newton", and/or "Cemetery" in their name.
There are 5 cemeteries that are plain "West Newton Cemetery", 3 of which are in towns named "West Newton".
Sidenote:
One of the cemeteries listed in the Event Places and on Find a Grave does not exist:
West Newton Cemetery in Newtown, Green County, Pennsylvania.
Biggest clue that it does not exist is there is no address or no GPS available.
For the 3 memorials located there, I submitted Suggested Edits to move them to the correct cemetery, the one in West Newton (pointing out the clues in the copy-paste obituaries in the biographies).
Once all have moved, I'll put in a request to have this cemetery deleted from Find a Grave.2
