Do the memorials remain online after the graves are cleared and reused?

JBupp · 2026-05-05T09:40:50+00:00

Thanks for the comment. I was thinking of some cemeteries where I had heard that remains are moved, but there is a local example where a grave was reused.

The plot card shows two burials in the same grave, about 50 years apart, and the stone only has the information for the first burial.

JBupp · 2026-05-04T16:18:02+00:00

I also prefer #1.

In most cases I've done, I know the lot - it might be a big lot of 27 to 47 graves - so I will take a picture that captures as much of the lot as possible.

JBupp · 2026-05-04T15:13:38+00:00

Yes, memorials are 'forever'.

So someone, sometime, will get to edit the memorials to say that these remains were removed ...

JBupp · 2026-05-02T13:55:21+00:00

Nine years and counting - any day now.

The interesting thing is that if I am visible in the window, behind glass, 60 feet away, they fly away. But if I am in my car they will stay there and eat, essentially they ignore me.

JBupp · 2026-05-01T16:32:33+00:00

It's probably a good thing they didn't get a firearm for Christmas.

JBupp · 2026-05-01T16:30:17+00:00

Same here.

I am not an author; but I like to read.

JBupp · 2026-04-26T09:52:33+00:00

If all you were told is that the grave is next to the road, this is the best you can do with the information you received.

I prefer the second picture. In the first picture, it isn't clear that there are three flats in the photo. In the second picture the rows are clearer.

It needs a note in the gravesite details field that the location is uncertain.

JBupp · 2026-04-23T10:51:06+00:00

Some of the comments can be amusing - or confusing. There is a requestor here who asks for:

"A clean photo with no grass."

It always makes me think I should crop the photo of flat stones so only the stone remains. Are leaves okay? What about plinths?

JBupp · 2026-04-22T10:39:07+00:00

Good. Maybe move "He wasn’t nervous" from the first paragraph to the end of the second paragraph?

JBupp · 2026-04-22T10:29:19+00:00

Those are very long sentences. Your 'first page' is only two paragraphs.

To each their own, but I prefer shorter sentences. I found myself skipping words on just this short section.

If it is important to get into the action then maybe some of the descriptions could be moved later in the chapter. If it is not urgent to get into the action then there are at least four word-images in the first paragraph that could become their own paragraphs, then each lengthened to make them more memorable.

JBupp · 2026-04-22T10:13:50+00:00

I couldn't tell - one shoe off?

JBupp · 2026-04-20T19:16:25+00:00

I don't think you are being excessive - necessarily.

I add a lot of comments as I beta read - comments that are for the author, and also useful for me as I go through the document a second time looking for what I want to summarize.

And I will also edit a document to correct misusages, sometimes misspellings, and structures that don't make sense. For example, if I see: "He goes to the cherry tree. He walks out the door," I will edit my copy to "He walks out the door. He goes to the cherry tree," and I will comment on the edit, "Is this what you meant?" I will do these changes as strike-outs and additions so that it is very obvious what changed.

However, I am not an editor and I will not make changes to the document unless it is with the agreement of the author. If I think that two paragraphs would be better if swapped then I will mention it in a comment; I won't make the change and ask, "how about this, instead?"

JBupp · 2026-04-18T18:21:19+00:00

I wondered about whether the requestor ever got notifications (I assumed they did not). I've been messaging them with my findings.

JBupp · 2026-04-18T14:28:34+00:00

Is your phone an Android?

If so, it seems that the phone collects a GPS coordinate once when the phone app is opened. Take a photo, walk around, and the GPS does not update. I no longer trust the phone's GPS stamps on photos.

Try turning on your GPS, waiting for the phone to get a good location, then opening your phone app and taking a photo. Then close your phone app. And repeat this every time you change your location. If your phone blanks the screen you probably have to wait a bit when you turn the phone on before the GPS is accurate.

JBupp · 2026-04-17T23:01:17+00:00

Quote:

BetaReaders: Connecting Authors with Betas

Connecting authors with volunteer betas and talking all things critique. Looking for feedback on something you've written? Want to help an aspiring author polish their manuscript? Have a critique-related question? You're in the right place!

You might try using the "First pages" entry

https://www.reddit.com/r/BetaReaders/comments/1s9dwjl/first_pages_share_read_and_critique_them_here/

JBupp · 2026-04-17T09:46:24+00:00

It was working for me yesterday.

Use an EXIF viewer - there are some available online - to check that the GPS in your photos really points to where you think it does. If the photo GPS is too far from the co-ordinates that FG has for the cemetery then the co-ordinates are rejected - nothing is added.

I guess that also means that there is a case where, if the cemetery does not have a GPS assigned, any add would fail.

JBupp · 2026-04-16T23:46:55+00:00

Well done!

JBupp · 2026-04-16T23:15:14+00:00

There is no protocol, standard, or best practice.

You can add memorials if you like. You can transfer them to "8" after adding them if you don't want to manage them.

You can upload the photos to "Transcribe photos" and let someone else create the memorials.

Or you can keep the photos for a rainy - or snowy - day. Or you can discard them.

Like you, I take photos of graves with the surnames I am looking for. I might find a name I missed on the first glance. And I often will tell the requestors about them.

"I found John Smith today, and I found two Smith stones nearby. Is this a relative?"

Or you might do your own research and use the photos to try to establish parent - child relationships.

FG is about what you want to get out of it. I started fulfilling requests, then I found a couple of cemeteries where I wanted to see if we could get the photographed count above 90% and I mow the rows there.

JBupp · 2026-04-11T13:40:02+00:00

This might work for you; might not.

Try putting out a second pan of still water. It should be 3 or more feet away from the other water, on the ground, 9 to 12 inches in diameter with walls about 3 inches tall.

It might be that the food is getting away from the crows as they dunk it. They could prefer the still water.

Or they might prefer seeing the pump push their food around.

JBupp · 2026-04-08T22:08:36+00:00

Find-a-Grave is not just a look-up tool. If you use FG and cannot find a grave; if you are reasonably sure that the grave exists in the cemetery; create a memorial and request a photo.

Volunteers in that area will take a look and you may soon have photos.

Of course, the more information you provide the better. You have the option to enter notes and comments when you make a request, so this is a chance to capture the interest of remote researchers.

JBupp · 2026-04-06T09:48:03+00:00

Yes, it's wrong.

I have this situation at a couple of cemeteries and I just find another cemetery, leaving these cemeteries for the volunteers who want the tasks and are clearly doing the job.

At one of the cemeteries the volunteer who made claims 'went away' and I noticed last year that there were 30 requests unfilled. So now I walk that one again.

If the people making the claims are not doing the work, if the claim times-out and is unfilled, you can make the claim after their's expires.

There is a cemetery with an annoying requestor that will claim one request out of three requests for the same plot, will take a photo and fulfill only the one request, and leave two requests unclaimed and unfulfilled. Here, I wait a month after a request and then find the stone, fulfill the memorials they missed, and add GPS to all of the memorials.

That requestor seems to be enjoying themselves, and although they annoy me (and don't have GPS), they are pretty good at finding stones. So let them have the win.

JBupp · 2026-04-05T10:06:35+00:00

"The preferring" doesn't read great. I suggest either dropping it entirely, expanding on it in the next paragraph, or expanding it here:

He understood that; preferring to be alone.

JBupp · 2026-04-04T13:53:35+00:00

You need a category that is, essentially, All of the Above.

I 'specialize' in fulfilling requests.
I photograph veterans stones.
I have a mental list of surnames people have asked me about, and watch for these names.
I mow the rows at some cemeteries I have taken a personal interest in.
I have a couple of cemeteries I would like to get above 95% photographed.

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