I have been working on the genealogy of my family and several of my friends for over 55 years. I've been a member of Find a Grave for nearly 10 years. It's important to remember those who have passed on before us. They helped make all of us into the people we are today. As a rule, I spend several hours a day working on my Find a Grave memorials. Most of my local work is done in cemeteries here in central Illinois, but, I have also worked on 250+ graveyards/churchyards in the UK, primarily, in the Somersetshire, Leicestershire & Staffordshire areas. I have also created several memorials in cemeteries in Wales and Australia, as well as in 150+ U.S. cemeteries. It's the perfect past time.

Although I have a large number of memorials (in the U. S. & the UK), I do not simply "collect" or hoard them. A great many of my memorials were created from sources that had not been previously searched or recorded. In as many cases as possible, I try to connect family members & add missing locations & dates. I have spent many hours adding plot number information, when it is available, for entire cemeteries. I also painstakingly search burial records & parish registers for people who may have been omitted, for one reason or another. I usually try to translate inscriptions, written in other languages to English, as long as they are reasonably legible. It's my goal that these people are not "forgotten". *

* A few Find a Grave "pet peeves": I've run across several people who habitually include their foot or feet in their gravestone photos. (It happened so often that it could NOT have been an accident). I don't care how cute your shoes, boots, "wellies", sandals, or Crocs are, they're very distracting to a loved one's gravestone photo. If you accidentally include a foot (I've done it myself), please, crop it out before posting the final photo. (The same goes for background vehicles/background people, which Find a Grave asks that we not include.) It makes a much nicer and more respectable memorial.

* Also, PLEASE do not assume that every name on a tombstone is a deceased person! If there is no death date, that may very well be a living person or surviving spouse. Here in the U.S., many people now purchase their tombstones on a "pre-need" basis, so their remaining loved ones won't have the burden of that expense at the time of their death. It also gives one a chance to choose or design your own monument. (That's what I did.) My birthdate is on MY tombstone, but the last time I checked, I'm still amongst the living, so there is no death date! Please, do your homework!

*"Chalking" - to chalk or not to chalk? I personally never do it. Most people assume the first rain will wash it off. Sometimes it hangs on for many months, even longer! It can damage an old gravestone even more! When I was working in churchyards in the UK, there were posted signs prohibiting "chalking and/or rubbings" for this very reason.

*ALL CAPS memorial names: Find a Grave doesn't want us to do this because some scanners & automatic viewers/readers process ALL CAPS entries as acronyms, and not as the proper names they were meant to be.