Grave Concerns on the Internet
(August 2008)
Find A Grave!
Maybe you already know about the interesting web site at www.findagrave.com but did you know that it has been around since 1995? It was originally built by founder Jim Tipton to catalogue the graves of famous people, but over the years the site has evolved into a global cooperative effort to build a database of all inhabitants of cemeteries. Tipton has a dedicated team administering the site, but the information contained within is constantly updated by a network of volunteers. According to the site, “thousands of contributors submit new listings, updates, corrections, photographs and virtual flowers every hour. The site simply wouldn’t exist without the 350,000 plus contributors.”
Find A Grave’s database of 22 million interments is completely free to search. Membership is also free and after completing a short form and logging in, one may add memorials, update obituaries, leave virtual flowers, and add or request photos of headstones. Volunteers around the world go out to cemeteries, hunt for a requested headstone, photograph it, and then, as FindAGrave.com contributors, post the information on the website to share with other searchers.
People join the site for many reasons. Some want to add loved ones so they will not be forgotten. Others use the site to review cemeteries they are interesting in visiting to see if there are any famous grave sites or any graves of particular interest located there. Some members volunteer their photographic services to be contacted by email when a request is pending in their area. Others contribute by transcribing obituaries from the area newspaper into the ever growing FindAGrave.com database.
In the May 2008 issue of Illinois Country Living Magazine author Jen Danzinger, a FindAGrave.com contributor, submitted the above information about the web site and gave these tips for fellow cemetery wanderers. Be prepared to spend plenty of time in the cemetery as you never know what challenges you will face, such as tall weeds, overturned headstones, or hard to read inscriptions. Wear comfortable shoes to walk through many rows of plots. Bring a piece of chalk to help make the inscription on extremely old, weather-beaten stones more legible in your photograph. The chalk will eventually wash away in the rain. Finally, remember that not all cemeteries are on public property. If the cemetery is on or surrounded by private property, obtain permission before entering.
These kinds of volunteers are doing a great service for those doing genealogical research. Cataloguing the inscriptions of old stones that are still standing is an important way to combat the loss of genealogical treasures to vandals and natural forces.
Grave Tending on the Internet!
For a fee, www.Gravescape.com promises to clean up the gravesites of family and friends, plus provide photographic evidence that a floral arrangement or vase was left at the appropriate tombstone or mausoleum. This is the brainchild of an Ohio businessman, Mark Martin, who wants to provide this service for people who find that distance makes a cemetery visit impractical. The cost of the services runs from $60 to $110. This information came from a news item in the June 2008 AARP bulletin.
Internet Facilitates Easier Grave Robbery!
By Sid Kirchheimer, author of Scam Proof Your Life
AARP Bulletin March 2007
Have you ever been surprised at the personal information that is available on the internet? Try typing in your phone number or address in the search bar and watch what happens! Much of our personal data is already public record!
Authorities warn that information posted on the internet has made it even easier for scammers to troll through daily obituaries for names and addresses and then go to another site to buy social security numbers and other personal data—such as credit histories—of the recently departed for as little as $15 on the Internet.
“About 400,000 checking accounts were opened in the names of deceased people in 2004,” reports Jay Foley of the Identity Theft Resources Center. (www.idtheftcenter.org) Even more often the goal is to open credit accounts in the name of the dead. When and if the cases are discovered, surviving family members are unlikely to be held liable for the debt, but they may pay a price—in time and money—to unsnarl the credit and bank records of their deceased relatives.
When a loved one dies and there’s so much going on, most people really don’t think about having to protect the name and reputation of that person. Here are some suggestions from Foley that might help:
Don’t include the home address in an obituary. Aside from preventing identity theft, you don’t want thieves to visit the house, helping themselves, while you’re interring a loved one.
Mail copies of the death certificate to all three credit-reporting bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—and all other credit issuers to cancel accounts right after the person dies.
Contact your state department of motor vehicles to cancel any driver’s license and prevent duplicates from being issued.
A few weeks after taking these measures, run a credit report on the loved one’s name to ensure there has been no suspicious activity. You can get a free report from each credit bureau at: www.annualcreditreport.com