How to handle "removed memorial" links to Findagrave?

LegacyUser

iLoveMyLife02 said: Recently I have clicked on several blue Record Hinting icons that led me to Findagrave memorials that have the message, "This memorial has been removed." At first, I attached the record, just so that the blue icon would go away and at least other Users would not waste time looking at and attaching the memorial to the FamilySearch Person. But that is misleading, because the attached source still appear on the Person's Sources, and Users will be misled into thinking that their ancestor's gravesite and/or headston has been found. I suspect that Findagrave has had to purge records that were based on speculation rather than on evidence (photos or cemetery records), but that is just my guess.

I have found at least 10 or 20 of these removed Findagrave memorials in the past two months, and found another one today, for Marguerite Leleux, LH1T-GDM (Memorial #142473028).

Should I attach or list as "Not a Match" (which is not exactly true)?

LegacyUser

robertkehrer said: Updates between Find-A-Grave & FamilySearch occur regularly, but not continuously (measured in a few months). These removed records will get updated with the next data sync.

I think the best option that you have right now is to mark these as Not-A-Match. It's not ideal, but it will hide these from users and not add a spurious source to the Sources section of the person page.

-Robert

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: In the case of the Find a Grave deleted memorial (and likely the entire cemetery listing), I will go ahead and declare the hint as "Not a Match" and put as a reason statement, "Deleted Find a Grave Memorial".

Something that is not there is definitely, "Not a Match."

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: The index comes from Find a Grave. That is used by FamilySearch to create the hint. I'm not sure how often Find a Grave produces a new index that is imported into FamilySearch (same issue with Ancestry, by the way).

I'm not sure why Find a Grave is deleting the cemetery records and associated memorials, but they are. It may be that there is a duplicate cemetery listed and this is a clean up process, but that is speculation on my part. I really don't know.

Since the hint is invalid, I would go ahead and mark it as "Not a Match" because there is nothing to which the record can be compared.

Maybe FamilySearch has a better suggestion, but in the case of the records I maintain privately, I have deleted the source where the memorial is no longer valid.

LegacyUser

Christina Sachs Wagner said: I was told that Find A Grave uploads are performed at the discretion of Find A Grave. At that time, there wasn't a specific time frame between uploads, but that was a while ago and may have changed.

LegacyUser

Christina Sachs Wagner said: Thank you for the response and advice!

LegacyUser

iLoveMyLife02 said: I am afraid that clicking "Not a Match" will affect the matching algorithm negatively. In the cases I am citing, I have every reason to believe that the underlying "person" is a match (dates match on Findarave index), but Findagrave has deleted the memorial.

Most of these are for very old graves, and I am often surprised that a Hint indicates that someone may have found a grave for the person. Then, I click on "Image" and "Visit Partner Site", and I get the "This memorial has been removed" message at Findagrave. My guess is that Findagrave is deleting memorials that do not contain a photo of a headstone or a cemetery record, such as a plot number or logbook entry. I am glad that they seem to be ridding their site of memorials that do not indicate that their users have "found" a grave! (Some people seem to have beem using Findagrave to publicize their "alternate reality" trees that perpetuate bad info.)

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: As far as I know, Find a Grave does not delete memorials, unless there is some legal reason for doing so.

I did some research (google) on one cemetery and found they had a policy against listing taking photographs of gravestones. How that policy had anything to do with Find a Grave's memorials for a given cemetery is beyond me, because Find a Grave clearly indicated that the cemetery had a policy against photographs.

I do not agree with their stance, but they are the owners of the cemetery (it was not a public cemetery) and therefore had rights to set that kind of policy.

The only other thing I have ever found is that another cemetery was created on Find a Grave and that the site then removed the duplicate cemetery to keep the site clean.

LegacyUser

crystal said: Is it possible to locate a entry on Find a Grave that has been removed?

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: IF the Find a Grave memorial has been removed, about the only option is to open the Find a Grave website - https://www.findagrave.com/ - enter the name of the person and the state where the person is buried (or died).

Good hunting. No guarantees, but at least that should come up with a response.

Find a Grave also has forums. I have never used them so I don't know how effective they are, but it is also a possible option - https://www.findagraveforums.com/

LegacyUser

Crftvl said: perhaps the cited record is one that was deleted in the case of a duplicate like these two - same guy, same cemetery, one should be deleted:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8...

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1...

LegacyUser

Michele Laduron said: So what happens in a case if the deceased desired to be buried in two locations? For example, deceased is cremated & partial cremains with spouse & partial cremains with birth family and has a marker in each place?

LegacyUser

Jeff Wiseman said: Or one of the locations happens to have a cenotaph...

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Cenotaphs are more common than one might think, especially if a person has been cremated. In other instances, a cenotaph can be created as part of a national memorial.

When it comes to finding that there are two headstones for the same person, but in different cemeteries (I have one of those), the key is to find out which actually contains the remains. The other should be recorded as a cenotaph.

Be careful with headstones that provide only birth dates (no death date is recorded). In most cases, the person with the missing death date is buried elsewhere and the family, at the time of the person's death was unaware of the original headstone.

LegacyUser

Juli said: Tom, in Hungary, a headstone with only a birthdate is usually for a still-living spouse.

LegacyUser

Michele Laduron said: Tom, headstone with only birthdate/year is common in my area
as when the spouse dies more often than not the surviving spouse has their birthdate/year added to the monument before it is placed.
Also, back to the question I asked earlier....if there are cremains & monument in both places wouldn’t they both remain?

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: That is true, but in the case of those who were born 100 years or more ago, then that likely is not the case.

I should have w written that in many cases, if there are two names on the headstone then the one with a missing date is usually alive. The Find a Grave records, managed by individuals, where this occurs often enter the person in the record with a death date of unknown.