Is the Cemeteries Search feature being worked on?
https://www.familysearch.org/en/cemeteries/
I find that it doesn't display some of my relatives❓️
Best Answers
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Mod note: Your post was edited to remove a name that is not part of your username. Please see the Community Code of Conduct.
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@BookWorm5 - maybe that should be the first suggestion - "Please provide documentation explaining how the facility works and what people need to do to see X, Y, Z (whatever) in the facility"?
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@BookWorm5 - I will look out for it
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Note that we won't see the Suggestion listed under Suggest an Idea, unfortunately, so we can't chip in at all, we just have to wait for the Idea to (hopefully) be implemented. @BookWorm5 we gather that the engineers may communicate with you about it, but only if they need clarification.
I submitted my own Idea some time ago concerning Suggest an Idea's lack of transparency/collaboration, but so far without result. This is a copy of that Idea: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/174169/idea-re-suggest-an-idea-process-submitted-but-shared-here-for-visibility
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Hello @BookWorm5, can you provide the Family Tree identifier (PID) or URL for an example of a relative that's not shown, please? That will help this Community investigate your problem. Thanks.
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Are you saying that some of your relatives do appear in the list when you don't have "Only show my relatives" selected, but don't appear when you do have "Only show my relatives" selected?
You say that some of your relatives are not displayed. Are the ones that aren't displayed when the option is selected the spouses of blood relatives, rather that being blood relatives themselves? The cemetery search doesn't include spouses as relatives to be displayed. In this respect, it is different from the relationship diagram that you can call up from the VIEW RELATIONSHIP button on a profile page.
If some of your relatives are never displayed in a cemetery where you know them to be interred, then that is a different issue. My understanding is that the list of burials that the cemeteries search uses is built from the Billion Graves and Find A Grave websites by a process that does not use the (standardised) burial place of profiles. It is often the case that a profile is displayed by the cemetery search when the profile does not have, and has never had, any burial information. I don't know often that process is run to update cemetery search lists.
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Response 1- here is a relative that doesn't appear: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/G3KP-X7Q
Response 2 -
a) Some relatives DON'T appear when I DO have "Only Show My Relatives" selected. They also don't show if I DON'T have "Only Show My Relatives" selected (they don't show either way)
B) Some blood relatives don't show either way, here's one: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/G3KP-C3L
Thank you both for responding. Please help because I think this feature is extremely useful.
Sincerely, (name removed)
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@BookWorm5 If you have access to Find-A-Grave (a free site) you may be able to find answers to your questions, at least in part. Best wishes, Mary
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Thank you for the suggestion, Mary, but I like that FamilySearch attempts to map the burial location of ALL my deceased relatives for whatever parts of the map are showing, appears to combine FindAGrave with BillionGraves records, attempts to give a listing of ALL my deceased relatives buried within a single cemetery, shows my relationship to each relative, provides a hyperlink to the person page for each relative, and many more features. I really like this feature but it would be nice to understand its limitations and provide reasoned suggestions for improvement.
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@BookWorm5 Please contact me now thru the Chat Feature Mary
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Regarding:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/campaign/cemetery
I too am not seeing all of my relatives on the map. Only 11 seemingly random blood relatives. I don’t see any spouses.
For one of my relatives, the cemetery name is not listed on their PID, only the town. But somehow, the cemetery name is listed on the map.
The date that the burial information was added to the PIDs does not seem to be a factor. Of the ones that are on my map, the info was added between 2018 and June of 2025 (3 of them this year).
For my relatives that have burial info listed on their PIDs and are on Find a Grave, here is the count of what I’m seeing:
2 out of 2 great-grandparents
1 out of 3 grandparents
2 out of 4 great-grand aunts/uncles
5 out of 9 grand aunts/uncles.
1 out of 5 aunts/uncles
0 out of 2 first cousins
0 out of countless distant cousinsAll of them are interred in the USA, except one of the missing.
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@BookWorm5 In respect of your original question "Is the Cemeteries Search feature being worked on?", you may see a dismissible banner at the top of the opening page of the search. It reads:
We hope you enjoy the Cemeteries Search. Please keep in mind that this feature is experimental and has limited support.
Given that the search has been in production for some years, this may be out of date. But it may indicate that the search isn't being worked on at present.
With regard to your relatives who aren't in the list when you don't have "Only Show My Relatives" selected, you can add them to the list by using the "Add Person" button (if there is a suitable source for the burial). However, you should note that the search does not appear to provide a mechanism to remove a profile from the list if it has been added in error (I have recently sent feedback to FS asking about this).
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Thank you Julia Brown38⚡️ - I had never paid attention to the "Add Person" button since I just want the feature to work by drawing from my relatives burial records that I see attached to their profile. But it pays to poke around and I learned I can easily add one of my relatives to the proper cemetery by using their ID number BUT HERE IS WHERE THE MYSTERY DEEPENS …
🤨 The relative I added won't show up when I filter for "Only Show My Relatives" even though it was my great-grandmother (blood relative).
😯 Thank you Nyx773🔑 - you referenced a different URL than I did which DOES pick up the newly added relatives (but not any relatives who were previously missing that I haven't added)
🤔 So my temporary work-around is to add the missing relatives using my original URL: https://www.familysearch.org/en/cemeteries/ and then I can use Nyx773's URL: https://www.familysearch.org/en/campaign/cemetery to see them grouped by cemetery.
😂 Curiously, there is a filter button for "Direct Ancestors Only" on the second URL but it shows the same ancestors whether I check the filter or not.
🤪 It seems the two URL's are drawing from 2 different pathways - I have no idea whether they will cross-pollinate someday or not.
⁉️ Will FamilySearch document the status of either or both of these URL features?
🛠️ Will there be a fix for the inconsistencies outlined above?
💡 Any ideas for how to encourage improvement?📈
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@BookWorm5 Thank you so much for sharing your ideas! I encourage you to post them in the “Suggest an Idea” section of the FamilySearch Community. When you include your research, details, and any extra background, it really helps others understand and thoughtfully consider your suggestion. Every idea submitted is reviewed and evaluated by the FamilySearch team.
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Thanks MazyPutnam, I think that before I suggest an idea it would be good to know how it is supposed to work. The lack of documentation on this feature makes it almost impossible to propose improvements.
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Thanks Adrian Bruce1, I took your suggestion and made a suggestion. Please express support for my suggestion to provide documentation. The title of the Suggestion is: Document the Features Available from "Cemetery Search" and "See what cemeteries your relatives are in".
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Thanks MandyShaw1, I have already figured out that Suggest-an-Ideas seem to go into a Pit of Dispair (Princess Bride) wherein they may never be seen or heard from again - although I hope this one is only "mostly dead" (Princess Bride). I am hoping that enough people signaling support for my idea title will create an R.O.U.S. (Princess Bride) that will overcome the Fire Swamp (Princess Bride). Am I just climbing the Cliffs of Insanity (guess) here?
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@BookWorm5 - and anyone else! Is there a mechanism where an ordinary user can signal their support for a Suggestion? Or am I just being thick in not seeing it?
Edit to add: Ah - just seen @MandyShaw1's response in the accepted answers….
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I just took a look at your Suggest an Idea about Suggesting an Idea and while the "discussion has been closed" I was still able to at least "like" your post. Those are all very thoughtful considerations.
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