Enable search by memorial number in "Find a Grave Index"

LegacyUser

hthalljr said: Because Findagrave enables internal links within its own database to parents, siblings, spouses, and children, I often find a person in Findagave that is ALREADY in FamilySearch, but which needs to be linked to that Findagrave record.

If for some reason Research Suggestions does not suggest the record, or a FamilySearch search updated with the exact information found in Findagrave does not lead to the Findagrave record, one can, as a last resort, go to the search/records menu, enter "find" in the "Find a Collection" field, select the "Find a Grave Index" title, and search that only that collection with the exact information found in Findagrave.

However, for reasons mysterious to me, searching with the EXACT name, dates, and places found in the known record in Findagrave also often fails, and I end up creating an externally-linked source to Findagrave for that person.

It would be very useful if one could simply enter the known memorial # in a search in the FamilySearch "Find a Grave Index" that would find the record directly. To the best of my knowledge, the memorial number is not currently enabled as a search field.

LegacyUser

Chas Howell said: Agree search by memorial number would be helpful.

On why searching with Exact name etc fails- This has happened to me too. I have found sometimes that if I delete the birth place that is automatically populated in the search, I will find the findagrave record. Go figure.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Open the Find a Grave site:
On the "Find A Grave Search Form" (https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...), enter the memorial number in the "Memorial #" field (toward the bottom of the form) and press "Search"



If the memorial is still valid (some are not), the memorial details will be displayed.

Note that if the memorial is not valid, then it likely has been combined with (or deleted because of) an existing memorial for the same person. I have run into a case where an entire cemetery has been deleted, along with all the memorials.

That has been my experience.

Also, internal links to parents, siblings, and children are created by the patrons of Find a Grave. They may or may not be accurate and should not be trusted unless the linked grave records concur with the information in FSFT.

Also, the only thing that really can be trusted to apply to the person is the information recorded on the gravestone. Even then, mistakes happened and the dates on the stone may not be accurate.

At best, Find a Grave records are a secondary source and should be treated as such. Added information that is not on the stone should be treated as an "other" source, or hint, regardless of the nature of the added material (including copies of death certificates for the reason that the certificate may not be for the person in the Find a Grave memorial).

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: (This is the Find-A-Grave search form. He would like the Memorial # field in the FamilySearch search form.)

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Yes. My first instruction was to open the Find a Grave site.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I think that what is wanted would require a different search form for for each collection, or in this case each index imported from outside FamilySearch.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I just checked and it appears that the same search form is used, regardless of the collection. Adding a search field required by just one collection would require a search form beyond what is currently available.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said:

However, for reasons mysterious to me, searching with the EXACT name, dates, and places found in the known record in Findagrave also often fails

I had trouble with this as well until I realized some things. The Find-A-Grave index does not include birth and death places. The search form in Family Search does not include burial place. Some combinations of searches prevent finding the record you want.

Here is an example Find-A-Grave record:



Putting in name and death place and year gives no results:



Leaving out the death place, brings up the record I'm searching for:



Likewise, searching for both birth place and date gives no results:



Leaving out the birth place gives several results:



It is somewhat erratic and unpredictable, however. If I put in name, death year, and death state, rather than city, I do get a result:



For some reason, although birth and death place information is included on the Find-A-Grave site, that information does not come over in the index provided to FamilySearch and putting it in the search form, can wreck the results. Just being aware of this and searching just with names and dates, should let you find the records you are looking for easily without needing to use the Memorial number.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: But back to the actual suggestion.

Looking at Find-A-Grave records in the FamilySearch index, they all have an "Affiliate Record Identifier" which is the memorial number.

Billion Graves has an "Affiliate Image Identifier"

currentobituary.com has an "Affiliate Image Identifier" which is an index number only visible in the URL for the record, not on the record itself.

It does seem that if enough of these affiliated sites that provide indexes to FamilySearch have some type of record number or identifier, that it would be worthwhile to standardize the name for it and include a search box for it.

LegacyUser

hthalljr said: What I am trying to accomplish is LINKING a record in Find a Grave to the person's record in FamilySearch. The most convenient way is to find the record in the FamilySearch Find a Grave database and then use the linking tool.
Here's another example of a failed search that occurred today. After exhausting my searches in FamilySearch, I searched for the same person in Ancestry, using the Ancestry link in the "Search Records" field. Ancestry provided me with a link to her record in Findagrave:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1...
I then returned to this person's page in FamilySearch:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/per...
I selected "search" at the top of the page and entered "find" in the Find a Collection search field, which took me to the Find a Grave Index in FamilySearch. There is currently no field in this index to allow searching for a KNOWN memorial number, as is possible in a search in Find a Grave itself.
After trying several different combinations of the KNOWN information from the memorial at Findagrave, I have given up up trying to find the person in the FamilySearch Find a Grave index and will created a new source using the external URL.
If anyone succeeds in finding this person in the FamilySearch index, please let me know what search parameters you used.
But it would be MOST helpful if I could simply search in Family Search's own index by the KNOWN memorial number.

LegacyUser

Christopher Allen Young said: I would think that if a collection were being searched then the indexed data of that collection should be presented as search field options. It would essentially make the search engine dynamic. Might be a bit of a stretch programming wise but would solve a bunch of things for a lot of collections where filters on race etc cannot be applied.

LegacyUser

David Wynn said: I heavily agree with Chas' point. FindAGrave is one of many collections that *suffers* in search if you include information it doesn't index by. To *greatly* improve your changes of finding the FindAGrave memorial in FamilySearch, keep the person's name and birth date range, but remove the birth location from your search. Including a birth location nearly guarantees you won't find the FindAGrave record.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Even ancestry does not directly link a person's profile page to the Find a Grave memorial. The same process is used by FamilySearch. You have to open the source to the source's details page, and go from there.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: By the way, Both FamilySearch and Ancestry use an index provided by Find a Grave. Neither site produces their own index.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: I've done everything I can think of to try to find Catherine Holland Dickinson in the FamilySearch Find-A-Grave index. I don't think she is there. Could she have gotten dropped from the index when copied from Find-A-Grave to FamilySearch?

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: When I use the method I mentioned above, copying and pasting a memorial number into the Find a Grave website, I have seen a number of instances where the memorial number is no longer valid.

I'm not sure why these things have happened, other than either the Cemetery has contacted Find a Grave asking that their cemetery no longer be listed on the site, or that someone has stated that the cemetery is listed twice, thus causing Find a Grave to pull down one of the cemeteries.

It could impact persons appearing to have been dropped, when the cemetery itself was delisted, along with all the entries.

H Tracy Hall, Jr

I don't know if it's always been there, or if I just learned how to do it, but what I wanted to do is now working for me. If I failed to understand, it, I apologize for complaining. If a change has, in fact, been made, then THANK YOU!

From the FamilySearch main menu: Search / records / collection title: Find A Grave Index

Under "Restrict records by:" select "Affiliate Record Identifier."

Paste the memorial #, and you the Source Linker opens with the Find A Grave Index.

MandyShaw1

Re searching Find a Grave Records by memorial #, just a quick note to say that this is v useful, but that I have found it only works if you add an asterisk to the end of the number.

Many thanks @H Tracy Hall, Jr for the tip.