Canadian with German parents from Silesia and Transylvania (more on my genealogy website at Rootsweb, https://sites.rootsweb.com/~bgwiehle/ )

Findagrave is for remembering people and connecting them, and not just for grave photos. It lets people visit graves that they cannot visit in person. And find relatives who lost contact. It can document changes over time - to the grave site and to the family.

Findagrave is a collaborative site - no one person can know all, be everywhere, have the interest or time to do it all, and never make mistakes. Be kind, be helpful, accept help.

Findagrave is dynamic - site updates improve the experience for curious visitors, contributing members, and researching family.

My Findagrave contributions focus on memorials with family connections in Canada and USA, and adding memorials and photographs for local cemeteries in West Elgin and Stratford.

West Elgin (Ontario) Cemeteries - http://sites.rootsweb.com/~bgwiehle/can-usa/cemeteries/westelgin.htm

Re: Avondale Cemetery, Stratford ON

• All sections photographed; will check for new interments and changes at least once a year in each section. Ongoing research to improve memorials

- Other Projects: Avondale Notables (locally significant persons, but not necessarily famous by Find-a-Grave criteria; see virtual cemetery), Misc Military (veterans and military cenotaphs in the non-military sections; see virtual cemetery), _British Home Children at Avondale (see virtual cemetery), memorial reviews and research

• 2026 In-Progress (Summer)

FYI for anyone planning a 2026 cemetery visit: Avondale Avenue to the cemetery entrance has been repaved and is (usually) open to through-traffic. The John Street entrance is open and nearby bridgework seems complete. Road work ongoing on some sections of Huron Street.

- Cemetery photography working from my "To Do" list and seeing changes. Lots of new foundations and filling uneven areas.

- Avondale's online cemetery database is being updated to add subsection info, using somewhat different terminology than that which I had applied at Findagrave. Also some name typos are being corrected. I have started to review all entries for Section Q; starting with updating my spreadsheets, and eventually editing the memorials. Several other sections will need to be reviewed.

- Research at the archives ongoing, but visits infrequent.

- unresolved:

--- Current total of 70+ memorials with no grave photo. Reasons vary: wrong cemetery and correct cemetery unknown, unmarked graves with plot location uncertain, and cremations not (yet?) inurned at Avondale - no marker, no database entry. A growing number are additions to Avondale by other contributors, and locked for 3 months after death.

• Note 1: I use the Avondale cemetery database as the source for plot identification. However, there are several reasons for deviating - subsections, errors, multiple markers, omissions - which should be appended to the plot text or marker location. Omissions ("not in cemetery database") are problematic, as they may be due to database errors or name changes (that is, present in database, but not yet identified) or actual burial elsewhere. [FYI The burial register, 1871-1924 accessible at the Stratford-Perth Archives, uses the same section and lot numbering].

• Note 2: When an obituary is still available on an online newspaper or funeral home site, I prefer to just reference a text url. This method (1) respects copyright, (2) does not require me to modify the text to remove the names of the living, (3) does not create an actual clickable link to an outside website, but (4) still provides a source for information used on the memorial and (5) a way for interested visitors to obtain more.

If the online link is defunct, or I've transcribed the obituary from microfilm, I consider enough time has passed that the text can be presented in full, and the source is still credited.

• Note 3: I include full* marker transcriptions on my memorials. I do this because 1) it provides accessibility to photo content (regardless of whether the issue is with the visitor, the electronic interfaces or the photo itself), 2) full context may be important, 3) I had to prepare it for extraction to other fields anyway. Exception: pre-need text is omitted. Format (/ instead of line breaks) follows cemetery transcript conventions; this is preferable both for spreadsheet submissions (at memorial creation) and for downloading to spreadsheets. (Otherwise the line breaks truncate the text or cause errors. Findagrave inserts break code when downloading). Corrections and additional info, if any, are placed within square brackets. *I do try to avoid unnecessary repetition.

Memorial owners: Please leave a message or send an email if you want my source(s) for corrections I've suggested. The automated set-up makes updating very easy, but communication of details is limited. DON'T ASSUME THAT EVERYONE READS PROFILE PAGES BEFORE SUBMITTING (especially when so many contributors don't review edits at all). Please let me know when child or spouse links are duplicated, so potential cenotaphs can be identified and labelled.

Contributors suggesting edits: I review suggestions and process them as quickly as possible. My review tries to verify the data with online resources (family trees are a last resort), and often adds other missing details. If I cannot corroborate the suggestion, I may send a request for your source(s). In this case, please reply within a few days, or the suggestion will be declined for lack of response. I am flexible on what is acceptable, but give very little credit to un-sourced and unattributed trees. If your source is not easily verified by accessible resources (eg. family info and unindexed records) or you provide a biography or transcript, I may credit you. Contributors adding photos: Please let me know if you've added a grave photo, as memorial managers are not notified when photos are added. If adding person photos, please use the appropriate photo type ('grave' is default).

Pet Peeve: Place name errors because of confusing the Ontario county on a record with a municipality of the same name: "Perth, Lanark County" is not the same as Perth County. "Elgin, Leeds and Grenville United Counties" is not the same as Elgin County. Typically, ancestry.com does not include the municipality on Canadian indexed vital records - you have to look at the image (if available) to find the town or township. Also watch out for electoral districts instead of actual counties. (Some records are being re-indexed but sometimes there are weird entries like Huron, Huron [county], Ontario, instead of real places).

Site change as of mid-Jan 2022: Memorials for the recently deceased are "locked" for 3 months - photos can only be added by the memorial's manager, and, if present, only seen by the manager. And a "family" member can takeover management without warning or thanks or credit for a year after the death date. Family may be entitled to a transfer, but the lack of appreciation is discouraging.