Money Making use of Private information 28 January 2022 Reviewer: No More Find A Grave from USA
24 of 50 people found this review helpful
Search Effectiveness:
Ease of Navigation:
Features:
Technical Support:
Help Files / Documentation:
Ease of Joining / Registration:
Value for Money:
Overall Star Rating:
As someone who has researched all sides of my family tree, Find A Grave is a cleverly disguised money maker for the owner filled with inaccurate information. Ads on the memorials generate revenue for the owning entity (alleged to be the cleverly disguised business entity of Mormon Church--headquartered in Lehi, Utah). Sources list the "owner" of the site as a business entity in searches to find the actual ownership.
Inaccurate information is provided by a largely proportionate group of territorial posters who have no ethical problems about stealing "memorials" from each other with zero regard for family relationships.
Too many memorials are guesses at burial information with no source documentation. It has and always will be a numbers game of who can post the most memorials until Find A Grave removes that aspect. There are literally "contributors" who sit at their computers adding memorials from the internet 24/7 who have zero interest in the people they post or how doing so affects grieving families. The ethical reality that most families would strongly object to the information copied and pasted about living relatives and their families, locations, and relationships. Additionally, many devout Catholics and other religious families would not want to be generating revenue for the Mormon Church (if in fact they do actually own the website) or any other business entity for that matter. While checking out this site I was subjected to harassment by territorial contributors who repeatedly reported my account in order to get it removed, refusals of contributors to transfer memorials within the guidelines set by the site, denied factual edits, and a long list of inappropriate and hateful behavior from contributors which Find A Grave allowed and failed to address, that I am sure continues.
Individuals with access to private burial information (church secretaries/record keepers, parishioners, Reverends/Fathers, cemetery groundskeepers, and others should NOT be posting private information (entrusted by families) to Find A Grave regardless of their argument that it is "public" information. The integrity of church and community members privacy should be a number one priority. Violating that privacy is apprehensible.
It is NOT a credible genealogy source; it is literally a site to make money off the deceased through advertising. It is an invasion of privacy to grieving families.
The "balance" of this review would be that Find A Grave no longer existed. There is nothing positive about the site. The negativity and invasion of privacy to grieving families far outweighs any redeeming or necessary qualities of Find A Grave.
In summary, I would not recommend Find A Grave to a friend.
