*If my messages are off, it's due to multiple issues which caused me to lose messages or not even know a new message existed... Therefore, please use the edit function to contact me, and please add "2nd request" if your first seemed to fall into e-limbo. Thank you in advance for your understanding. As I do not intentionally ignore messages.

About me:

*Currently working directly with or intermittently for more than one cemetery to verify, add, correct, update locations from their burial lists.

*Volunteering started, to preserve the memory of ancestors. Our common ethnicity, language(s), religious or cultural naming traditions, heritage, etc. Which has now become my almost primary work. My own family research continues, as together with in-laws, our tree is large and complicated, which includes researching for not only extended family members, but also close friends, parishioners, and our ethnic community.

*Memorial data I enter or suggest, is either per Find-a-Grave site guidelines or directions from support, and researched via [GPS] Genealogical Proof Standards, as referenced also in site guidelines.

*For now, I am maintaining many memorials for the benefit of our ethnic community burials, with the main focus being on Cyrillic inscriptions, mainly Ukrainian, Ruthenian, Belarusian, Russian. Also, those of Latin text, in Polish or German, and also those in Modern Greek, and even some which are sometimes intermixed. Note: this may include ancestors who immigrated from various countries, but not always of that country's typical ethnicity. (i.e. Ukrainians from Poland or Russia, or German Mennonites from Ukraine).

**Please Note: ALL locations listed the Drop-down menus are "Modern-day", NOT "Historical".

**Locations listed in records as Russian Empire or just Russia are NOT automatically Modern-day Russia.

**Austro-Hungarian Empire aka Austria-Hungary aka Austria or Hungary, is NOT Modern-day Austria nor Modern-day Hungary.

**Pre-WWs Galicia region is NOT in Modern-day Spain! It is the borderland areas of Modern-day Ukraine and Poland, etc.

*If you would like a memorial transferred to you, please do so via messaging directly from within that memorial.

*Pet-peeves: Adult bullies, adults with control issues, those who waste my time & that of my genealogy clients and/or Cemetery owners. Although situations of simple ignorance happen, it's the insensitivity, empathy or lack of open-mindedness regarding immigration, etc. that boggles me the most. Especially the lack to fathom that differences exist also within ethnicities, countries, etc. ...or that all Cyrillic text is NOT Russian... Similar does NOT mean equal! [a Russian letter "и" is typically the letter "i" in Ukrainian, and in pre-1918 records, BOTH letters were used in Russian alphabet, as were also others.

*Another pet peeve is use of Google translate as a substitute for knowing a language. A native speaker can easily tell when someone uses a translator... So Please... as F-a-G recommends, leave the transciption to those who truly know the language. "Transcribing" Non-English inscriptions on Find-a-Grave, does NOT mean "Translating"! We are actually "Transliterating" BUT ALSO, ALWAYS checking for similar name spellings ALREADY added, AND ALSO checking for spellings used at time of their immigration!

*Note: Every language has its own "transliteration table" into English. There is no one-for-all table, and Russian to English is not an equivalent of Ukrainian to English. Plus, Surnames transliterated pre or during WWII, depended on the language of that country, the literacy of the immigrant, and how scared they were of being forcibly returned to the occupied zone...

*Reiterating... Letters of Modern-day Russian alphabet are NOT all equivalent to Ukrainian (i.e. Ukr. letter Гг = Hh in English, but Ru letter Гг = Gg in English, because the letter Ґґ (which existed in pre-1918 Russian ) and exists in Ukr. is = to Gg in English)

*More detailed info can be found by researching the "1918 Russian language reform", mutiple letters were eliminated from the then Russian alphabet and therefore are not included in today's standard RU keyboard.

Although websites such as "lostrussianfamily" or even FamilySearch Wiki, do not provide accurate Ukrainian to English transliteration tables, as they are not sites overseen by persons of neither native speakers nor persons with advanced knowledge of Ukrainian orthography. Knowledge of various regional and/or historical differences regarding language or culture, is required when transcribing foreign language inscriptions.

*Lastly: Proper grammar is always essential, but when working with a large database, such as this site, there are formatting standards which sometimes override those regarding grammar! A period after a title, will cause an incorrect sort. We are ALL expected to following Find-A-Grave guidelines! Not "our" personal preferences! *Note: the rule regarding using a period, does not apply to a middle initial in this database! A middle initial should always be followed by a period! Please read the guidelines!

If we all follow Find-A-Grave standards and just our own preferences, then we all can collaborate with the respect which not only each of us deserves, but the respect each deceased and family member deserves.

*I now thank you for reading my rant to its end. If you remember anything from what you just read, please remember that I send fully researched, unbiased edits based on facts (using GPStandards), not per hearsay nor personal preference, and in favor of how the decedent had it pre-death. Why?

*Because posthumous data, including death certificates, obituaries and headstones, are "notoriously incorrect!"