Cemetery Data

Yesterday when researching the descendants of the Wabash Valley Tapscotts, I found listings for the same two people in two different cemeteries in both Find-A-Grave and the Illinois Genealogy Trails website for the county involved. In all likelihood there is an error.

I am not going to give the name of the county since people maintaining county genealogy websites are volunteers and their time is limited. But like most, though, not all cemetery listings maintained by county genealogical volunteers, the sources of the data were not provided. Thus, there was no way to determine reliability or where the error might be. There was no indication of whether the data source was death records, burial records, obituaries, marker transcriptions, anecdotes, newspaper articles, family trees, guesswork or (most likely) some combination of all of these. To genealogical society personnel, please, PLEASE, PLEASE provide sources for published cemetery data.

At this point I would like to congratulate the Clark County Genealogy Library in Marshall Illinois. They have a collection of cemetery listings for the county in booklets and these listings are, as far as I can tell, 100 percent verbatim transcriptions of cemetery markers. They may not be correct, but at least we know the source and can evaluate the reliability accordingly. If only others publishing cemetery listings would do the same.

As far as Find-A-Grave (FAG) is concerned, the site is a valuable tool. I use it all the time. But the posted data are, to be blunt, untrustworthy. When I first started doing family history research I assumed that the data posted by FAG on the internet came from cemetery marker inscriptions—Wrong, WRONG, WRONG! I often find serious errors, massive blunders posted on FAG. In some cases the data are at complete odds with the actual marker. It appears that anyone can submit “Virtual Cemetery” or “Memorial” data to FAG without providing reliable sources. FAG data are useful only if a photo of the grave marker is provided so that one can transcribe it themselves. Presumably, the photo is attached to the correct cemetery, though in one case I found it was not. I also tend to use attached obituaries if (and only if) the complete newspaper source is given. I never, NEVER, NEVER use FAG data except from photographed markers or well-referenced obituaries, and even then with a "grain of salt."

Enough of the polemics. And now back to researching the Tapscotts.