Combine Findagrave 'Cemetery' and 'Event Place' fields for the Burial Location.
When linking a Findagrave Source the 'Place of Burial' defaults to Findagrave Event Place (City name) which does not include the cemetery name. If you could automatically combine the Findagrave 'Cemetery' with the 'Event Place' (with a comma in between) that then becomes the full Burial Place which can be found to standarize the cemetery location. We now have to copy the Cemetery name and paste it in before the location when linking the source.
Comments
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Part 1
Larry, I would really like to see this as well, but here are some thoughts on this:
1) When the cemetery name has not been indexed with the rest of the indexed source data (as it is in Find A Grave's indexes), it is not even possible to use it in an automated way (i.e., if it hasn't been provided to FamilySearch in the indexes they're given, it isn't "digitally" present in a form where it can be used). FS would have to somehow modify the indexes to add this information there first.
2) I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US, I find that nearly all cemetery names I've come across already exist in the Standard place names database. So at least they are there and can be selected when standardizing the displayed place names for events. So you would not "have to copy the Cemetery name and paste it in before the location when linking the source". Instead you could theoretically just select it from the standards list. However, that can be made a bit more difficult due to the following issues.
3) The location names for Cemeteries in both the Find A Grave memorials and their corresponding Indexes is frequently WRONG. On their website, Find A Grave tends to use the present day mailing address for the administration of that Cemetery (usually a town or city). I have seen this as much as 10-15 miles away geographically from where the cemetery actually is! In some cases, the cemetery is not even IN the city, township, or even (in rare cases) the county that Find A Grave has listed on their website and their indexes. I have occasionally had to have the Standard Places Team make adjustments to cemetery names/locations in the standards database to account for this.
4) A cemetery normally doesn't change in its physical geo-coordinates. However, it's name (sometimes based on the church or other owners of the property), and the community, township, and county names can all change over time. Boundary lines move. When folks just copy over the name and location of a cemetery from a Find a Grave index for a burial EVENT, they are technically wrong on many occasions.
The Find A Grave indexes do NOT contain any explicit information about the actual location and time of the burial event. They only show the name of the current day location of the interred body. That may not have been the name of the cemetery, community, township, or even county where the burial event actually occurred. Furthermore, if you were to record the current cemetery name as the location of the burial event, what happens if 10 years from now the name of the cemetery or jurisdictional location were to change again? The names that you used would now be incorrect! (One of the great advantages of the dual naming system for places that FS uses. It's genius!)
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Part 1
Larry, I would really like to see this as well, but here are some thoughts on this:
1) When the cemetery name has not been indexed with the rest of the indexed source data (as it is in Find A Grave's indexes), it is not even possible to use it in an automated way (i.e., if it hasn't been provided to FamilySearch in the indexes they're given, it isn't "digitally" present in a form where it can be used). FS would have to somehow modify the indexes to add this information there first.
2) I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US, I find that nearly all cemetery names I've come across already exist in the Standard place names database. So at least they are there and can be selected when standardizing the displayed place names for events. So you would not "have to copy the Cemetery name and paste it in before the location when linking the source". Instead you could theoretically just select it from the standards list. However, that can be made a bit more difficult due to the following issues.
3) The location names for Cemeteries in both the Find A Grave memorials and their corresponding Indexes is frequently WRONG. On their website, Find A Grave tends to use the present day mailing address for the administration of that Cemetery (usually a town or city). I have seen this as much as 10-15 miles away geographically from where the cemetery actually is! In some cases, the cemetery is not even IN the city, township, or even (in rare cases) the county that Find A Grave has listed on their website and their indexes. I have occasionally had to have the Standard Places Team make adjustments to cemetery names/locations in the standards database to account for this.
4) A cemetery normally doesn't change in its physical geo-coordinates. However, it's name (sometimes based on the church or other owners of the property), and the community, township, and county names can all change over time. Boundary lines move. When folks just copy over the name and location of a cemetery from a Find a Grave index for a burial EVENT, they are technically wrong on many occasions.
The Find A Grave indexes do NOT contain any explicit information about the actual location and time of the burial event. They only show the name of the current day location of the interred body. That may not have been the name of the cemetery, community, township, or even county where the burial event actually occurred. Furthermore, if you were to record the current cemetery name as the location of the burial event, what happens if 10 years from now the name of the cemetery or jurisdictional location were to change again? The names that you used would now be incorrect! (One of the great advantages of the dual naming system for places that FS uses. It's genius!)
<Continued>
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Part 2
And then, of course, you have the situation where occasionally a cemetery has had to be moved. That means that the person has technically had TWO burial events (or one burial followed by a "relocation"), each in a different physical location. And that raises the question of whether the the photo of the "Headstone" is really a headstone or a cenotaph that uses the original headstone.
In any event, these are some reasons why the burial event "location" that has been recorded in the person's record in FSFT may not match sources like the burial location as given in the person's death certificate.
So, in summary:
A) FS can't automate things as you request because Find A Grave doesn't include the cemetery name information in the indexes that they provide to FS. Although FS might be able to add this information on a batch type basis, I don't know how difficult it might be for them.
Even if Find A Grave DID provide the name information in their indexes, there will be cases where it is technically wrong and wouldn't match the true locations in the standards database.C) Because of the above issues as well as the fact that the source linker won't bring data over if data has already been stored in the Burial vital of the person record, you always have to manually look at it anyway.
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Part 2
And then, of course, you have the situation where occasionally a cemetery has had to be moved. That means that the person has technically had TWO burial events (or one burial followed by a "relocation"), each in a different physical location. And that raises the question of whether the the photo of the "Headstone" is really a headstone or a cenotaph that uses the original headstone.
In any event, these are some reasons why the burial event "location" that has been recorded in the person's record in FSFT may not match sources like the burial location as given in the person's death certificate.
So, in summary:
A) FS can't automate things as you request because Find A Grave doesn't include the cemetery name information in the indexes that they provide to FS. Although FS might be able to add this information on a batch type basis, I don't know how difficult it might be for them.
Even if Find A Grave DID provide the name information in their indexes, there will be cases where it is technically wrong and wouldn't match the true locations in the standards database.C) Because of the above issues as well as the fact that the source linker won't bring data over if data has already been stored in the Burial vital of the person record, you always have to manually look at it anyway.
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It appears that the standard names for US cemeteries in FamilySearch may have originated with the GNIS database of standard place names published by the US Geological Survey. As such, many of them seem to have the post office, post office's county and state after the name of the cemetery, rather than the locality, county, and state. On occasions, the place names are even in the wrong county when the post office is across the county line. This makes them hard to find. I'd like to suggest that aliases exist to help resolve entry issues.
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It appears that the standard names for US cemeteries in FamilySearch may have originated with the GNIS database of standard place names published by the US Geological Survey. As such, many of them seem to have the post office, post office's county and state after the name of the cemetery, rather than the locality, county, and state. On occasions, the place names are even in the wrong county when the post office is across the county line. This makes them hard to find. I'd like to suggest that aliases exist to help resolve entry issues.
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