NSW, AUSTRALIA (formerly New York, NY, USA)

Purpose: This site helps preserve memorials to ensure they're not forgotten. My focus is on extended family, researching and documenting interments initially from NYC research repositories since 1994. I'll transfer memorials to closer relatives and share photos with credit.

Biographical edits: I stick to burial specifics—site details, epitaphs, interment facts—especially when subjects are well-documented elsewhere. Exception: when Find-A-Grave is the only source. I cite primary sources or early genealogies, not secondary sites like Ancestry. Better information belongs in scholarly journals. Find-A-Grave should be accurate, not mirror genealogical data found elsewhere.

Collaboration: Meaningful memorials need many volunteers. Memorials thrive in the care of knowledgeable people—direct relations or local enthusiasts. The "Four Generations" policy lets some hoard for numbers while leaving relatives without descendants ignored and unconnected. I focus on connectivity of the "relative" few I know well, striving for accuracy.

Hypothetical memorials: I support "unknown" memorials when discovery is possible—this has led me to answers countless times. Through deductive hypothesis with others' help, I've found both individual graves and entire cemeteries, including four ancestral cemeteries (2011-2018), fully photographed, transcribed, and which I still manage:

1. Lyon-Rawson Cemetery [Byram Neck, Greenwich, Fairfield Co., CT]

2. Solomon Gedney Burial Ground [Village of Mamaroneck, Rye, Westchester Co., NY]

3. Bailey Cemetery [Mahopac, Putnam Co., NY]

4. Christ Episcopal Church Chancel and Tower [Tarrytown, Westchester Co., NY]

Transcriptions: I care about funerary design and accurate transcriptions (exact spelling, line breaks, case, fonts). Google scans text, making contemporary fragmentary epitaphs searchable, thus knowable. Photos alone don't suffice, vary in quality, and aren't digitally text searchable - yet! Even partial phrases of popular epitaphs can identify complete text on eroded stones.

Finally, I prefer quality over quantity, recognizing that perfection takes time and you have to start somewhere.