Tech Tuesday: Find A Grave Acquired by Ancestry.com

In a press release dated September 30, 2013, Ancestry.com, the mega fee-subscription genealogy site, announced that it has acquired the free, contributor-based burial index site Find A Grave.

I have to admit that my first reaction was, "Oh no, there goes another one."  Over the years, the Ancestry corporate powerhouse has built its service and beefed up its fee-only content by "acquiring" smaller sites in the genealogy/family history industry.  I do recognize the advantages to having Ancestry's convenient collection of genealogical information at one's cyber fingertips (and yes, I am a subscriber), but it is still extremely sad and disappointing to see smaller, volunteer-based websites being assimilated.

So -- what does Ancestry's acquisition of Find A Grave really mean?  One can only speculate, but in yesterday's Press Release, Ancestry CEO Tim Sullivan stated,

     "Find A Grave is an amazing phenomenon supported by a passionate and engaged community of volunteers around the world ... We at Ancestry.com are so excited...honored really...to take on the responsibility of supporting this community. We will maintain Find A Grave as a free website, will retain its existing policies and mode of operation, and look forward to working with Jim Tipton and the entire Find A Grave team to accelerate the development of tools designed to make it even easier for the Find A Grave community to fulfill its original mission to capture every tombstone on Earth." 

Find A Grave founder, Jim Tipton, states on the site's FAQ:

     "Ancestry approached me a few months ago about working together and I was impressed with the creative, bright people they have that were really excited about the thought of being involved with Find A Grave. We have come up with an arrangement where Find A Grave will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ancestry, but we will continue to operate in the same way we always have. I'm going to keep running the site and all of the familiar admins that many of you have come to know over the years will still be here. But, I'll be armed with a full Find A Grave team that should allow us to push out improvements in a much at a much faster pace. Customer support should improve drastically, too."

Tipton and Ancestry both explain that they have exciting plans for the future of Find A Grave, including a much-longed-for mobile app that can be used on site by volunteers to record burial information.  Also, consider that the two sites have had a licensing agreement in place for over a year, with Find A Grave memorials appearing on Ancestry index searches, including active links to the memorials.

I suspect that the greatest concern generated by the announcement in the minds of Find A Grave volunteers/contributors such as myself is, "Will Find A Grave remain a free resource?"  Both Tipton and Ancestry have made multiple assurances that Find A Grave will continue to be a free resource and that "Find A Grave plans to continue its focus on honoring user's privacy and protecting their user generated content."  While I hope that both sites will honor this commitment and continue Find A Grave's free-access policy, ultimately only time will tell.

Tech Tuesday: BillionGraves or FindaGrave?

The World Wide Web is an amazing genealogical resource.  The amount of data that has been digitized in the past five years alone is astounding.  True, what can be found online only scratches the surface of the available historical and genealogical source materials all over the world, but the Internet has become an excellent place to start an ancestral search.  Personal and professional blogs, subscription databases, free records through digital libraries, and other online resources are becoming plentiful.  An online surname search that yielded no results in one week might be instrumental in breaking down a seemingly insurmountable brick wall with the same online search month later.

One recent newcomer to online research is BillionGraves.com, which utilizes the smartphone as a genealogical tool.  The site's goal is "[T]o provide an expansive family history database for records and images from the world’s cemeteries, all tagged with GPS locations."  After downloading the free application onto either an Android (Google) or iPhone (Apple) phone, a user would then take their device to a cemetery and begin recording the headstones using the app and the phone's built in camera.  The photos can then be uploaded to the BillionGraves site, where they will be tagged with the GPS location.  Don't have a smartphone?  The site is also looking for volunteers to transcribe photos that others have uploaded.  This searchable index of names will eventually be made available on both BillionGraves and Familysearch.org.

My first thought upon learning about the BillionGraves project was, "But what about FindaGrave.com?"  It, too, is a website devoted to indexing cemeteries and gravesites, with a free searchable database on FindaGrave.com as well as  Ancestry.com.  FindaGrave's mission "[I]s to find, record and present final disposition information from around the world as a virtual cemetery experience" and has been online since at least as early as 2000.  Like BillionGraves, it is dependent upon volunteers to expand their database.

So which site is better?  There are pros and cons to both.

BillionGraves.com:

1) A smartphone is required to create a "record" on the site.  Users are not able to create records or upload photos onto the site via computer, which begs the question -- How do you document an unmarked grave? 

2) Headstones are tagged with the GPS coordinates when uploaded to the site, making it simple for future visitors to locate the grave.

3) Currently, neither the smartphone application nor the website can warn a volunteer that they have just taken a duplicate photo of a headstone already recorded by another user.  The site recommends checking their website before taking a photograph to prevent duplication, which can be a tedious proposition when in a large cemetery.

4) Unmarked graves cannot be indexed.  No headstone, no record.

5)  Any site member can edit a BillionGraves record.

FindaGrave.com:

1) Records can be created via computer, without the necessity of a photograph.  Because of this, unmarked graves can be documented via obituaries, burial records, etc.  Photos can be uploaded from a computer and are not limited to the headstone. 

2)  FindaGrave does not have a smartphone application.  Records need to be added/updated via a computer and an internet connection.

3) When creating a new memorial, a search of the database is necessary to detect if there is a duplicate record.  There is no easy, "automatic" way to do so.

4) Individual records can only be changed by the member who created it; however, there is an easy way to notify the author of any changes/corrections.

I have been a FindaGrave volunteer for approximately four years but I have also downloaded the BillionGraves application to give it a spin.  No matter which site you prefer, they are both fee-free (for the moment) and excellent editions to the online genealogical toolkit.

Online Resources: Land Records

The Prince William County Clerk of Circuit Court Land Records Management System (LRMS) is an online database to help the general public locate a recorded document from a computer terminal.  It's a great option for anyone who might not otherwise be able to visit the Courthouse in person.

Searching the index is free, but if the user wants to view or print a document there is a fee of $0.50 per image and an Internet Convenience Fee of $2.00 at the time of purchase.  (If you accidentally view/print the wrong image, you will still be charged the fee.  There is no refund.)

I've found the LRMS to be quite helpful in surname searches or when I don't have the book/page number of a Deed that I'm looking for.

Indexes and Images available on LRMS for Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park include, but are not limited to:

Deeds and Related Land Records - Indexes and images from Jan. 1, 1918 to present.

Fiduciaries (Wills, Probate, List of Heirs) - Indexes and images from Jan. 3, 1981 to present.

Marriage licenses – Indexes only from Jan. 1, 1981 to present.

Website: LDS Research Wiki

In addition to being a marvelous site offering access to free information, Familysearch.org now offers an excellent research wiki.  Their PWCo Wiki includes links to resources organized by categories and subcategories, very similar to the popular (and most excellent) Cyndislist.

Free Civil War Records (for a limited time)

Check it out!  Footnote.com is offering free access to records in their Civil War collection until April 14th.

According to the site:

What is this collection?

Compiled service records of Confederate soldiers labeled with each soldier's name, rank, and unit, with links to revealing documents about each soldier. Collections include records for soldiers from over 50 territories and states.

What can I find?

• Returns, rosters, payrolls, appointment books, hospital registers
• Union prison registers and rolls
• Parole rolls
• Inspection reports
• Originals of any papers relating solely to a particular soldier
• Military unit

Website: Historical Marker Database

A little off the beaten path, the Historical Marker Database can sometimes provide information on a family and their location.  

Take the marker for the CHINN family, for instance, one of "Prince William County’s early African-American families."  The marker names several CHINNs as well as their association with the region.

Incidentally, the CHINN name pops up quite a bit in PWCo.  The Chinn Park Regional Library was named after Mary Jane Chinn, stating on their website that she "was born in 1827 and died in 1907. She is buried in the cemetery of Mt. Olive Baptist Church, still located on Telegraph Road in Woodbridge. Mary Jane and Tom Chinn were slaves who, after emancipation, purchased several hundred acres along what was formerly Davis Ford and Telegraph Roads in Woodbridge. They had eight sons."

The Chinn family is also associated with the Ben Lomond Historical Site, which will be one of the focal points of this year's 150th commemoration of the start of the Civil War.  Ben Lomond (also known as the PRINGLE house) was built in 1832 by Benjamin Tasker Chinn and Edmonia Carter Chinn and was used as a Confederate hospital during and after the Battle of First Manassas in July 1861.

Virginia Historical Society

If you're in Richmond, I highly recommend a visit to the Virginia Historical Society at 428 North Boulevard. 

In addition to special exhibits, the Society's collections "consist of a wide range of objects, including books and bound serials, Confederate imprints, sheet music, broadsides, newspapers, family and personal papers, business and organizational records, genealogical materials, maps, paintings, prints, postcards, weapons, militaria, glass plate negatives, and 19th - 21st century photographs."

You can search the catalog of the Society's collections by keyword(s) here.  Library materials can only be examined in the Society's reading room. An appointment or prior notification is not needed.

Outdated Medical Terminology

How many of us have encountered a confusing "cause of death" in their research? 

What is apoplexy?  In modern terminology, it means "stroke."

Ever heard of jail fever?  Possibly not, but I'm betting you have heard of typhus.

Here's a resource that comes in handy when reading those terms and others in old obituaries and death certificates:  Outdated Medical Terminology.

While you're at it, why not check out the Surgeon General's Family Health History Initiative, a national public health campaign "to encourage all American families to learn more about their family health history."

Website: Find A Grave

There are a number of cemetery transcription resources online, including Ron Turner's PWCVirginia.  One of my absolute favorites is Find A Grave.  Made up of volunteers, this site has been around for a while and has steadily grown in to one of the best sites for finding the final resting place of family, friends, and 'famous' individuals.

Find A Grave memorials can contain rich content including photos, biographies and dates.  Visitors can request a photo of a headstone from a specific cemetery and can leave 'virtual flowers' on the memorials they visit.

Find A Grave's stated purpose is to serve as a graves registration website and memorialization/remembrance site.  Anyone can register to be a Find A Grave volunteer.

For Prince William County specific cemeteries on the site, follow the link:  Findagrave PWCo cemeteries.

ETA:  I should probably add that Find A Grave is a FREE website.  You do not need to be registered to search the site or view the memorials.

Website: PWCo Virginia by Ronald Ray Turner

Anyone who's done research in Prince William County over the past 10+ years will easily recognize the name Ron Turner. It almost seems as if half of the books on the PWCo shelf in RELIC were authored by him.  Ron was transcribing, annotating, and sharing census and vital records with the public long before the Internet genealogy boom.

Ron now makes most of his publications available on his website at PWCVirginia, but there's so much more to explore!  You'll find links to his work documenting and transcribing the county cemeteries as well as businesses, structures, and miscellaneous papers and news articles. 

If you're researching a PWCo family or surname, Ron Turner's website is a great place to start.