The Trouble With Find a Grave

By now you've most likely seen my various listings and references to the website Find a Grave. This website is amazing for a plethora of reasons, but it has its faults as well, and that is what I wanted to focus on today.

So, what's the big deal? Well...as any good teacher will tell you, you need to source everything, especially in the day and age of Wikipedia and people pretending to be French models on dating apps. Find a Grave allows someone to post literally whatever they want about whoever they want, with no consequences. Several of the "Famous" people I've added to my virtual libraries have inaccurate information on them, but unless the person who controls the memorial page accepts the corrections nothing can be done. So be weary of what you cite from that website, and always do your best to back up anything you do use from that cite. This isn't such a big deal when your leaving virtual flowers on the graves of family members a thousand miles away, but actual scholarly journals? Eek! They even "trick" you slightly. If you scroll to the very bottom of the page you can click on the "Source Citation" for the specific memorial, but all it says is the name of the account who created the page and the number of the memorial in question :/

That's the main issue with Find a Grave, but I also have a personal problem with them, and that problem is--Drum Roll Please--the Famous Badge. I honestly do not understand how the badge works. I've applied for it on numerous of the pages I've created, and I get rejected every time! The people who run Find a Grave have a very specific set of rules you must follow in order to be named "Famous" but even when you follow them to the letter--they reject you! My latest example of this is on my profile for Lisa del Giocondo (entry coming to the website eventually):  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/200764348/lisa-del_giocondo

I followed their guidelines to a T and was still denied the Famous Badge for failing to follow their guidelines (and they never tell you what you did wrong either). It exasperates me to no end (see what I did there) so if you get frustrated too, just know you are not alone!

That's all for this one friends, toodles! -The Exasperated Historian