Find a Grave

Edit Updates

As you probably know, we’ve been working for a while to update the Find a Grave edit system. We’ve just released an update to the site that brings the latest changes to all memorials on the site and updates pages where you process edits that have been suggested to memorials you manage.

A lot of the important work for these updates is behind the scenes to modernize the code, but it has allowed us to make some nice updates to the process now and will make it easier for us to improve the edit process in the future.

Some improvements you may notice with this change include:

• The ability to suggest edits for all fields, including Bios and Burial Details.

• The option to add a note explaining and providing support for the edits you are suggesting.

• A way to mark the memorial of a veteran.

• An option for members to mark (or suggest that a memorial page be marked) as a Cenotaph or Monument (formerly Memorial Site) without contacting support. To see these options, click “Additional grave marker options” just below Gravesite Details.

• A cancel option on the Suggest Edits page, so that if you change your mind or make a mistake, you can easily cancel a suggestion you have made there before the manager processes it.

• An edit in one field will no longer lock related fields. (Notice the name fields in the image above)

These updates will make it easier to suggest edits, but we know there will still be reasons to contact a manager, so we’ve added a “Contact manager” option that lets you send them a message.

We’ve also made important updates to the Suggested Edits page where you process edits suggested for memorial pages you manage. These changes support the new edit options, simplify the processing of edits and include:

• Options to accept or decline individual parts of a suggested edit.

• A comparison tool for reviewing edits suggested for long text fields like the bio and inscription.  This tool includes some different viewing options to help you evaluate the changes and color choices for people with different viewing abilities. You can also edit longer text suggestions in this tool before accepting it by clicking the “Modify” button.

• A quick view of the main grave photo to help you review suggestions. You’ll find the preview by clicking the thumbnail image on the left of the suggested edit.

• Improved search, grouping and sorting options for edits.

You can learn more about suggesting edits from these articles on our support site:

This has been a big project and we really appreciate the help of everyone who has given us feedback, helped with testing new ideas or pitched in in any way. We hope you’ll find these updates helpful. If you have feedback or suggestions, please leave a comment on this page.

880 comments

  1. My sister ,Cynthia Eloise High, is buried in Brunswick Memorial Gardens, Shallotte, NC, in a lone grave with a headstone with her name, birthdate and deathdate (May20,1970). There is no information , but I have all that and would like to add it. I have done it in the past for other family members, but I had a stroke and I can’t remember how to now. Is there someone who would be so kind as to add the information that she was the daughter of Wiley Milton McDuffie and Alma Laverne Hunley McDuffie, who are both buried at Christian Hill Free Will Baptist Church, Rochelle,Wilcox County, Georgia? Here is his https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37514218/wiley-milton-mcduffie
    and here is our mother’s :https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37514238/alma-laverne-mcduffie Eloise was the wife of James Lawrence High, Jr. at the time of her death from chronic nephritis.
    He is buried in Brunswick memorial Gardens.
    https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95810740/jameslawrence-high#view-photo=106086568

    Eloise had been married to , and divorced from,Roger Lee Burnem, ca. 1961-1963 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114083674/roger-lee-burnem Cynthia Eloise was the mother of their two children, Cynthia Lee ‘Cissy’ Burnem and Daniel Milton Burnem Howe. Both of the children are still living.
    I hope this is not too cumbersome to leave you with, but I have every confidence you are fully capable to handle this sort of thing, and do so exceptionally well. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude of the dedication of each of you who follow through so faithfully Thank you all
    Mrs. Gloria Hayes

  2. This is a good idea but I still think there are members that will draw a distinction between a Veteran and a Casualty. Plus Veteran in America also include Coastguards and some other Services, I think. I presume these were not all Armed so I think it would help if the guidelines were updated to say exactly what groups FG wants included and are considered to be Veterans. Otherwise the debate will just keep going and memorial managers will continue denying edits.

    • In my opinion, ANYONE who has donned a uniform for their country is a veteran, even National Guards. If they served in any capacity, I consider it an honor that they did so. It doesn’t matter to me if they were “in country” or in the States if it had anything to do with military service.

  3. Is there a reason that auto edits have not yet been processed for May 12 and May 13?

  4. Added the dates back to the edits area, but they can’t be activated. Neither can I put a memorial # for which I’m searching history on and have it activate a search. Need the search button back also.

    Reload only reloads the full 100,000+ edits accepted (which by the way takes a long time to load on a computer, can’t image what it does with smaller equipment, ie phones, tablets, slow downloads, or even those who have limited download data)

    as to how to access this info reasonably put the search into the hands of contributor before sending the data. I only want last complete of days, I want only 1 memorial, I want only by one contributor, Ive been on vacation and must address older requests1st, etc. Only send out the info, and data downloads as requested. 100,000+ is a lot, but that has been mostly a lot of help IDing who the person is.

    computer google

    • Date range selection works. For custom ranges, you have to select beginning, then ending date and press “apply”. (That may be a little different than in the past).
      Selection of a memorial works. It is different. The memorial has to be in the list you’ve selected. As you type the number, you’ll see all memorials that start with the numbers you’ve typed. Eventually you should see the one you want. Select it. (If you are copy/pasting in, make sure you don’t have leading blanks. And you may have to delete the last number to “wake up” the search.) Contributors work the same way.

      • Typing #s bad
        Copy and paste is how I compensate for dyslexia and vision issues
        ADA issues needs another solution -can’t imagine what other issues are being ignored by young programmers with good vision, it will catch up with them

  5. I have 88 pending edits submitted on 5/13/2023. 21 days is 6/3, yesterday. No one at Find A Grave has approved any of these edits because it’s a weekend. Had the auto accept function been left to function as it did in the past, the edits would have been done yesterday. Moreover, there are more edits than in the previous version because parents are 2 edits, birth and death dates and locations are 4 edits, and sometime an edit to a name can be 4 edits. I have 47 pending edits submitted on 5/14/2023. 21 days is 6/4, today.

  7. The new edit system is fantastic! It is much easier to use, more exhaustive, and prettier to look at. Highest compliments to the developers who certainly had a tremendous amount of work to do on the back end to make this possible. Very well done!

  8. When i go to approve one suddenly 5 are checked. I have done this multiple times and find I have to cancel the approval and redo the one I want to approved. It was not a fluke it did this each time I wanted to only approve one item and it would “check” other boxes and NOT on the memorial I wanted. It randomly picked other memorial edits to do

    • We have been able to replicate this on Windows with Firefox and are working on a fix. Is this what you are using? If not, what device and browser are you using?

  9. Have most been using browsers? It appears that the APP (android OS) doesn’t allow some of the edit fields as Chrome does. I have to have both browser and APP open “just in case” of a certain type of edit ( like cemetery location I can suggest edit on browser on phone but not in APP ony phonr) . If it’s there on the APP someone tell me where? The only APP edits are like name Bio BD DD etc. and some other edit sections many have discussed here. It seems like the APP should allow same fields as browser (Chrome) does.

    Thank you !

    • We released this on the website first and are working on updating the apps with the new fields.

  10. When I select accept all, it no longer gives me the list of names that I’m approving. That’s the only way I know if someone I am related to, is in the group. I have tens of thousands of pages that I manage. The vast majority I know nothing more than what’s on the page, but the ones I do know, I need a way to not accept with the others. Please advise.

    • Hi Julia, thanks for your feedback. We’ll look into bringing this option back.

  11. The biggest problem I’m having is getting an email notifying me that suggestions or comments have been sent sent. I don’t log in everything day.

  12. I tried to accept suggestions and was not able to complete. I had 250+ requests pending and saw two problems. 1) selecting all on a page and trying to accept gave a “failed” message. 2) when I try to accept one line at a time it would sometimes clear the page and not display the remaining suggestions. It is unusable and I won’t review suggestions until it is fixed.

    • What device and browser are you using? We haven’t been able to replicate this issue. Is this still occurring?

  13. The recent improvements to the Find A Grave EDIT system are Terrific!
    Thank you.

  14. There is no way to suggest a grave is of a famous person when requesting an edit to a grave you don’t manage. I see the way to mark as a Veteran, and I can mark as famous on graves I’ve added, but not on the ones created by others.

  15. Dear FG,
    Can you please explain the thinking behind using the term Veteran as the tag for our Armed Forces. I have read that many edit requests are being refused because memorial managers do not consider that a Casualty of War is a Veteran. The term Veteran only seems to work in America, and is not inclusive, given that the site is Worldwide. If FG were to change the tag to Armed Forces or Military Service it would stop all the debate and could be added to a memorial without question. This would then stop all the edits that are currently being refused.
    There are a growing number of members raising this issue and I would like to add my voice to them and ask that you reconsider your position on this matter.
    Thank you

    • Good suggestions–terminology around the world is not the same when it comes to “Veterans.”

  16. a bug in the new edit system: when I accept edits to a memorial to name or parent fields, they are correctly changed, but the dates of birth/death, not edited, are suddenly garbled. Cf. memorial #175699063. I am using LInuxMint/Mate and the Firefox browser.

    • Thanks for reporting this. We are looking into it and will get it fixed.

  17. The new edit system addresses many of the frustrations I had with the inability to address significant errors. For example, some contributors made incorrect assumptions about where a person is buried, and messages to them about editing the burial location were often unread or disregarded. (Errors remained uncorrected, especially with memorials managed by contributors who opted to not receive messages.) As well, misinformation appeared in some bios–the result of a person’s own suppositions, faulty research, or reiteration of incorrect details from genealogy sites. I hope the ability to edit more parts of a memorial will result in increased accuracy across the website. Find A Grave can be a valuable resource, only if it is trusted as a reliable and accurate site.

    • The only major problem I see is if it’s on “auto” after 21 days, what’s to say someone else won’t go back and change it again and it reverts back to incorrect info because it’s on “auto”? There’s no way to monitor every memorial that’s in your family (unless you have them). I also have a problem with those who have their messages turned off. If they don’t want to accept messages and take the time to make the corrections, then they should turn their memorials over to F-a-G or to someone who will manage them. Hoarding memorials and not answering or making corrections is not managing them.

  18. I really like the new system. Thank you. Can we thank the people who are making the suggestions to changes in the memorials? Or is just accepting them enough?

  19. I cannot find the option to receive an email when making a suggested edit. This is important because Support asks to see that when later contacting them.

    • We encourage members to work together and have provided the notes option when suggesting an edit. The manager also has a notes field when they decline an edit where they can add their reasoning to help the suggester understand the decision. You can send yourself a copy of a message you send using Contact Manager. This would be needed in the case of a requesting to manage a memorial within the transfer guidelines, where there wasn’t a response from the manager.

  20. Found a (major) problem. (Otherwise, I’m mostly loving the changes.)

    If someone suggests a change in gender, and I go to the memorial page to approve it (rather than approving from the Suggested Edits – Pending page) it does the following:
    I click the Edit button on the Memorial page. Then I click on Accept for the Gender change – and it changes the days of the month in the Birth and Death fields! As long as I back out without hitting Save Changes, it’s okay. But I’m still trying to figure out how many memorials I’ve messed up before I saw that was happening.

    My reason for going to the Memorial page was to make some additional additions/changes (like adding to Bio), so, after Accepting the Gender change, I often made other changes on the pages, then clicked Save Changes. What a total headache this has turned into!

    I’m using Firefox on a Windows PC.

  21. I need my daddy added as one of the children of Amanda Jane Dunn Boger. I have no idea as to why his name is left out. Can you help? Thank you

    • Hi Dale, here’s a link to a support article that shares how to link a family member. Click here.

  22. I don’t see the “accept all” banner on top of suggestions when I’m using a smart phone in the portrait mode.. Maybe it’s visible on large iPads and large, smart phones but it’s definitely not there anymore on smaller units. Please fix! Thanks very much.

  23. My father was a veteran. His military rank is on his grave marker, and his service is mentioned in the biography on his memorial. I will not add the veteran symbol to his memorial because I do not like the appearance of it by his name. It reminds me of a copyright symbol, a trademark registration symbol, or a typewriter key. The symbol is not part of his name, so it should not be placed to look like part of his name. Other FG contributors have explained the problems with interpretations of the word “veteran.” I respectfully request FG end this new feature.

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