I don’t like to be negative but need a rant!
What on earth would someone who doesn’t speak a language want with a memorial in that language? Im Welsh and the area I’m from is Welsh speaking so the majority of headstones are of course in Welsh, one of the local gravers retired their account and people have claimed their memorials, it seems it’s mainly people from the US. I have been linking some families up who are buried together but just weren’t previously linked. I (naively I guess) assumed if they had the memorials they could speak Welsh, so sent them edits saying to see the inscription in Welsh and they’re declining all of the edits because they need proof of the relationships…it is written on the headstone, they are buried together with the same headstone!!! You just can’t read the language of the graves you have claimed!! Anyway I usually just have positive experiences on FG so this is definitely an anomaly, this is actually the first time I’ve ever had any edits declined and it’s driving me crazy! I think I’m probably preaching to the choir here but please don’t claim memorials in languages you don’t understand 😭

Anyone else think that making a memorial based on something other than a gravestone is causing more problems than benefits? The number of memorials in the grave I work on has more than a few memorials of people I know are not buried there. No record in the cemetery office of their interment. I think people are making assumptions based on where they lived or where they died.

Several months ago, a prolific FindAGraver in my area died. He created and managed many hundreds of local memorials and was very meticulous - almost all of his memorials have nice quality photos on them, even ones that were clearly hard to get.

I’ve kept my eye on the list of memorials that had reverted to FindaGrave management, because I have a few cemeteries that I spend a LOT of time in, and I was happy to be able take over maintaining some memorials in them. However, as the months have passed and the list of this particular fallen graver’s memorials has dwindled, I’ve noticed something weird. People went through and cherry-picked all of the adult graves and left the children. There were about 90 left on the list, and almost 100% of them were from the late 19th c. and were age 10 and under. Their parents? ✅Managed. Their siblings age ~16+ (some of whom share a STONE with younger sibs)? ✅Managed. But all of these babies and toddlers and young kids left, unwanted.

I don’t have grand aspirations on FindaGrave. I don’t want to collect graves like Pokémon. I am happy to manage those where I can make a difference in places that I actually spend time. But believe that I just picked up about 40 little babies’ memorials, only because I want them to have someone who cares that they *existed*.

So, I’ve seen an influx of photo requests from my local memorial hoarder, typically on memorials that already have grave photos. In the notes, her explanations for wanting new photos are that the existing photos are illegible.

Except they aren’t. At all. They’re not exactly artistic, professional photos, but they’re clear and all text on the grave is readable. One of the photos in question is even a photo she took and uploaded herself, about four years ago!

There’s another request where she stated that the photo doesn’t show the grave, just the family plot. The memorial in question is for an unmarked grave, which is explained in the gravesite details. There’s one grave with a stone, identified as the child of the memorial in question, and some concrete slabs with no inscriptions. The memorial corresponds to one of the slabs but it’s unknown exactly which one, hence the photo of the entire plot. Again, this is all explained in the gravesite details.

These requests are all rudely worded, too, which just kind of compounds my frustration. Like, it’s annoying enough getting a sudden burst of photo requests, checking them out, and seeing that not only are the requests unnecessary, but the person requesting them is being rude about it, too.

I don’t know if these are good reasons to flag the requests as being problematic, though. It could fall under ‘other problems’ but I’m just not sure if it’s a big enough deal to bother.

This is sort of half discussion, half rant, but yeah. Should I flag the requests or leave it be?

My wife died in 2024. I was looking forward to creating her page because I thought it would be therapeutic for me.

Before I could some guy grabbed her information off her online obituary and created her page. This was very soon after she died because I was waiting because I saw a rule said a person had to be dead a certain amount of time before you could make a page.

He even left virtual flowers even though I don’t know this person. He seems to have created a bunch of pages. Fuck him.

I was able to get myself named page manager and he is gone. But it pisses me off seeing his name as creator and the flowers he left. There doesn’t seem to be a way to remove the flowers unless it’s abusive.

I want to delete the entire page and create a new one myself. Can I do that?

tl/dr: I want to delete my wife’s page some vulture created and make a new one with just me on it.

Okay question. My husband got me started on Find a Grave. I've been on the website a little more than a year. I'm still learning the website. I'm very data driven and like things to be organized a certain way. My husband is very dead set on his ways and doesn't like the way I manage to GPS, photograph, etc. when we are out there. I've watched how he does things. I just can't do it the same way, but he has evolved to what he is doing now. Probably should mention that my husband has high functioning Autism. Very smart, struggles with communication and social skills, but is very meticulous about how things are to be done when it comes to adding things to find a grave.

I'm very spread sheets based. Not a big fan on how Find a grave presents your memorials that you manage. I'm not saying that it's bad, but when I want to try to find information a certain way, I can be very picky about things. I use google docs and spreadsheets on a regular basis and making a new one for me is quite simple.

I want to be able to easily track the memorials that I manage in the way that makes sense to me and allows me to easily located information and possibly connect people familial wise. If I made a google doc or spreadsheet, would any one want a copy of my template or possibly want to do a "group project" one and add information to each other's lists as we find it?

I'm open to ideas.

We had a death in our family 2 days ago- my great-aunt. I need to be vague here so as to not out my identity or hers. The circumstances of her death were…sensitive. Her passing has been posted on social media by her immediate family. Arrangements for services have been made but not yet posted publicly, nor posted in any newspaper. However, in our hometown, there are some of those people who collect memorials by entering info from newspaper obits. I’m the only FG memorial manager in our extended family. I really don’t want one of these grave collectors “grabbing” her like a Pokémon. What is the most respectful etiquette I can possibly use, given the sensitive nature of her passing? I know I’m not a niece/nephew, I’m a great-niece/nephew. Idk if I have a close enough relation to click that button, though if one of the closer family members suddenly joined FG, I’d gladly hand over any memorials I was asked for. Maybe I’m just being sensitive because I feel protective. Help? I’m sure there’s a right answer here. She was hospitalized for a while before she passed and I’m sure my brain power is just spent.

ETA: After all of your advice, I created the memorial. I called my dad (her nephew) and told him I did it and why. He understands, as he’s a genealogist and is familiar with FG. He tried to suggest I reach out to one of her kids to tell them I did it and offer to transfer it if they’re interested, but I told him I’d prefer to wait until after the funeral this weekend. Feelings are very raw still. I’d like to be respectful enough to let them get through this difficult week. Maybe in a week or two, I’ll reach out to the oldest and offer an explanation to her. I’m not able to travel home for the services, so I don’t want to make any waves. Thanks, everyone!

Something I wasn’t looking for and didn’t think I’d ever see. Meet Levator and Andromeda. My great, great grandparents. I wish I could thank or talk to the person who put these on the site. They must be relatives! Meanwhile, Levator doesn’t look pleased about getting his picture took

I have just started filling requests and updating my local cemetery. Some issues I have run into so far is trouble finding the graves people are requesting photos of. I also have found a ton of graves that are completely unreadable and im not sure there’s a way around fixing that. Any advice on how you guys go about this would be appreciated. Or just tips in general when it comes to this type of thing. I’ve been putting in new at my local cemetery and I assume I’m doing it correctly. If anyone wants to check the cemetery ID is 76853

I came across this grave in Germany on Find-A-Grave and I'm interested in seeing if there is more information about these 3 people. I don't speak German, but it seems like Paul Freitag was missing in 1943. Based on the years, I am wondering if Willi is Annemarie's second husband? I am curious if there is any information on Paul's disappearance, or any theories on what may have happened to him.

It happens to the best of us. Just about the time you feel confident that you know what you’re doing, you make an embarrassing mistake.

I just got a suggestion declined. It was to change a typo from "tree" into "three." Declined!?! They made the change after declining, so why not just accept it? People are so freaking weird.

I came across a cenotaph for a US Civil War soldier in a local cemetery, with parents attached. I submitted an edit to remove parents, since it was a cenotaph. FG removed them after 21 days, then I went and looked at the memorial page and it says his body was never found, probably buried by the other side in a mass grave. So he has a cenotaph but no other memorial. Would you go back and add his parents in to the cenotaph? I'm thinking of doing that.

Last week I received an email from a historical society in the town where my grandfather’s father’s family was from thanking me for adding some detailed information about my grandfather that is not well known and could be useful for others who are looking for their ancestors.
I was charmed about the thanks especially because they said they had been working on my grandfather’s family but couldn’t figure out where he disappeared to. He was orphaned quite young, was taken in by relatives and eventually took their last name.
My question is why would the history society then request an edit to my grandfather’s bio which is just a word for word copy of what I wrote?
I’m completely baffled about this. Would anyone here have any insight into what the motivation behind the request be?
Thank you for any help you can provide.

My partner died April 2026 and I went I create his FG I think in May when I learned about FG and a memorial was already created for him and I wasn’t allowed to claim ownership until 3 months after his death.

I submitted a request for ownership (only way I saw to do this was to submit an edit and put in the note I am Brendan’s partner and included the obituary which names me) but it’s been over a week and the owner who I don’t know (name is not friend or family that I know and they used info in the obituary for the FG photo.

How long do I need to wait before I contact support so I can own it?

This is HENRY CLAY we're talking about!

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130408529/henry_james-dickerson

She died when I was 6. My father is also deceased. He never talked about her much. I know she was born in 1930 in Oregon or maybe Washington. I know her maiden name. When I try to order her birth certificate from Oregon the state needs her birthday to order it and that is what I don’t have and want the birth certificate for. I cannot order a marriage certificate because Oregon wants the date of marriage which I do not know. Any advice would be appreciated.

any info will help! thank you so much :)

What is the best way to figure out what these old headstones say? I have tried everything I can think of, searching with the * and just the letters I can make out, or just the years…but seriously some of these stones are so old I cannot tell what they used to say. I’ve messed with brightness, color saturation, etc. if anyone has any ideas or tricks,I’d love any recommendations!

Hey, and this may have been asked before, but there are duplicate memorials for my great grandmother one that I created about 2 years ago and one that someone created based on her death certificate. I am now managing both, is there a way to combine them?
Thanks in advance.

I’m new to “Find a Grave” and want to manage my family’s graves. I was able to become a manager for my mother’s grave but when I tried to become a manager for my dad’s grave the site asked for $10 and would not allow me to become a manager without paying this fee.
Am I doing something wrong with the site?

If people took this site (FindAGrave) seriously, while using correct info and linking family members, this would be the largest free family tree.

I've been trying to mow the rows at a cemetery. And I've discovered I'm not very good at it.

I did a cemetery with 26 sections; I skipped two sections, one because it was very, very old stones, and one because it was very, very new stones. I created several thousand new memorials - which I discovered are time consuming to type out and not my fave task.

So, hurrah, I have completed the cemetery.

Then I see a request for the cemetery. One of the very few requests that has included a plot number. And the plot number is in a section I mowed.

I go out to the plot and, yes, there is the stone. It looks like I missed this partial row in the section.

Then I find a memorial that was in a shrub, but now it is early winter and the shrub has died back.

I start double-checking my work. Here is another row I missed, on the edge of a section. Probably I stopped that day without finishing the section and didn't start the next time at the proper place. Here is a section I thought I did, but I must have walked it while I was searching for one, particular surname and forgot to mow the remainder. Here's a stone where I missed the backside.

And the cemetery's periodic cleanup has uncovered a number of flat stones that were not visible the first time I mowed the cemetery.

I've learned a number of lessons: always check all of the sides of a stone; find a good place to start and stop when you mow; make notes where you stop; possibly, record the impossible stone - surname only, illegible, to investigate at a later date.