F is for Find A Grave

One of my favorite websites to gather information (whether for my own family history or my one-name study) is Find A Grave. Jim Tipton created the website back in 1995 when he wanted showcase his hobby of visiting and photographing celebrity graves. From that beginning and due to the efforts of volunteer contributors, the website has grown to include "final disposition information" for anyone - what is called a virtual cemetery experience. At last count there are over 121 million grave records. You can search by individual or cemetery. You can perform a focused search or browse. You can request a "look-up" and several members (volunteer contributors) add or update grave records every day. I enjoy reading the transcriptions and seeing the gravestones.

Oftentimes the contributor will add information about other family members or include the obituary or death certificate (those are my favorite finds, especially if I have need some clues for that person or their family). A reminder that we are talking clues here not "gospel truth." Be sure to do your own work, go to the primary sources and additional resources, and double-check any information you find online or offline.

How do I use Find A Grave with my Legacy database? Well I consider it an event/fact (I am a big fan of putting all my events, facts, and notes in this section - thanks Linda McCauley for that aha moment!) because I prefer the way the chronological report reads rather than breaking up the information in separate places.

Advanced Tagging is a great way to keep track of projects!

James Murphy's Individual View

Add/Edit Event - include in your notes
all the information and format it as you wish 

 

Be sure to check the output
review the chronology early on, make any adjustments
to your format and then - be consistent!

That was a quick look at how I work with Find A Grave. Remember - you own your Legacy program, it doesn't own you! So think about the output you want and do what works for you (just be consistent!).

See you back here tomorrow for the letter G!