I love Find A Grave, and have been a member for quite a while. But this is exactly why I do NOT consider such user-submitted websites as sources themselves. (F-A-G, Ancestry Family Trees, FamilySearch's Tree, etc.) Unsourced info on them are only hearsay and clues, and like you said, here today, gone tomorrow.
If the F-A-G memorial has a readable photo of the gravestone, then I put my master source of that readable info as "Gravestone transcription." I then put FindAGrave in the detail and the info in the detail text. If an obituary is posted I copy the text (and citation, if given) into notes and my master source is "Obituary." Any other unsourced info is either put in the person's research notes or entered as unsourced. This is my clue that it may or may not be correct and needs to be checked out further. I have, however, created an event called FAG, in which I can record the memorial number for easier location later. Jerri On 9/2/2014 11:14 AM, singhals wrote: > I haven't been a "member" at F-a-G nearly as long, nor have > I put up as many contributions as you or others. It is not > relevant to my issue. > > I do tend to feel, though, that a number of contributors > have included unproven/unprovable information, and one or > two I've found with erroneous information that is not on the > stone itself. Likewise I've found info I was later able to > confirm in official sources. > > However, if on 1 Aug 2010 I cited my source as "DELAUTER, > Roger U., /18th Virginia Cavalry: The Virginia Regimental > Series/ (c 1985 H.E. Howard, Inc., Lynchburg, VA, 1st ed.) > pg 24" anyone looking at pg 24 (DeLauder, op cit) in Nov > 2014 will see the same information -- The info may be > _wrong_ but it is guaranteed to be as I cited it where I > cited it. > > If, however, on 2 Aug 2010 I cited my source as > "http://www.FindaGrave.com /Memorial # 1458201/" it may have > changed by Nov 2014. Whether the change is an improvement > is not relevant. The source cited CHANGED and no longer > says what it did when cited. > > So, as a new researcher, Quizzlefrump asks me about our > common ancestor, I send him what I have with my source > citations, which being a good li'l doobee, he goes off to > check. And, Wow! That's not what that memorial says!! If > Cheryl made a mistake this obvious, how can I trust anything > else she says? > > Example: there's a memorial up that has the name of one of > my ancestors; I've got census, vitals, info from family > whose parents knew the man ... the whole 9 yards. Yet, the > memorial now has a completely different wife and children > listed. We're working it out (two men, same uncommon name, > different wives, one death-date, one cemetery, copious data > on both) but I cited it before the original contributor > transferred to the descendant of the other guy, so what I > copied and pasted THEN doesn't match what's there NOW. > > Cheryl > > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
