It can be useful to distinguish content which is found on a headstone image from other information by indicating in a Note what information in your addition is 'corroborated by headstone image' (example: Person:Martha Steele (25) see also Source talk:Find A Grave#Added a couple of recommendation statements. Recommendation: Indicate quality of a record from this source as 'secondary'. Indiscriminate use of Find A Grave without critical analysis or confirmation may introduce errors into one's research.

If there is a picture, but the gravestone has modern etching or includes dates after the death of the principal person, one must suspect that it represents family tradition as selected by some descendant. These cemetery markers are showing up on Find A Grave as burials when in fact the grave still remains empty.Д«ottom line: if there is no picture of a gravestone, this source loses what primary value it could have. Also, years ago some cemeteries placed stone markers with names on a grave site when the site was sold to be replaced by a stone placed by the family when the grave was occupied. Corrections may be suggested, however, by internal email to the volunteer who 'owns' a particular gravesite.ДЄnother problem is that some grave markers are memorial stones only and the individual's remains are elsewhere. At the least, well-meaning persons sometimes expand the information found on the grave marker from untrustworthy sources like World Family Tree -e.g., adding a month and day when the stone lists only a year, or adding a wife's presumed maiden name. An error in the book is thus carried over to the website with no indication of the source of the faulty information. It is known, for instance, that some volunteers have added large numbers of grave listings from published books, without ever having visited the cemetery themselves. NOTE: While the spirit of volunteerism at Find A Grave means that a great many new grave listings are constantly being added, it also means that the information found must be used judiciously. (If you're planning a visit to a particular cemetery, the Find-a-Grave volunteer community encourages you to make a list of photo requests for that location and to take along your digital camera - especially if you're requesting help for other cemeteries yourself.) A request may be filed for a volunteer living near a cemetery to take a photo of a specific grave marker if one has not already been posted.

A large percentage of listings now include a photograph of the grave marker, and often one of the cemetery entrance as well.

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