Find a Grave Team

Bio field and other updates

Thanks for sending us your feedback and suggestions. We’re always looking for ways to improve the site and add more features for the community. We’re excited to share that we’ve been working on updates to the bio field for memorials. Our main goals were to:

• Make it easier for you to add a link to other Find a Grave memorials
• Give you some simple tools for making the bio more readable
• Make it easier to see what the bio will look like as you add it

One of the updates to the bio field makes it easier to add a link to another Find a Grave memorial. Here are some simple instructions. 

1. Type the text that you’d like to display and select it (often this is the individual’s name)


2. Select the link button at the top of the bio field


3. Copy the URL from the memorial you are linking to


4. Paste it into the link field and click Save

A link to the memorial is created within the bio information field.

5. Save your changes.

If you are linking to another type of page on Find a Grave, copy that URL and paste it into the link field. 
The addition of bold and italics allow for easily emphasizing certain words or phrases. You can also create numbered or bulleted lists. The idea is to use these simple tools when you need to enhance the readability of bios as you update them.

Other updates to the site include:

• Adding a quick way to copy IDs
• Adding full names to relationship links
• Minor updates to the edit memorial page
• Using last name (instead of full name) to search lists of edits

We appreciate your help as we continue to add and refine tools for the site. We hope that you’ll find these updates useful and would love to hear from you in the comments below. We do see a few bugs and are working to fix them. Thank you for all that you do for this vital work, that helps people now and will for generations to come!

67 comments

  1. I used to be able to copy the list before the obit and put it in the bio. It won’t do that anymore.
    Why not? Sometimes there is just the list of info and no newspaper articles to go with it.

  3. I have spent a decade doing the genealogy concerning my ancestors. The majority of them live in the province of Ontario Canada. When I started to visit the cemeteries in the area I found the an individual had been photographing headstone and posting them on the Find a Grave website showing the date on the headstones. I have a lot of info concerning actual dates and places of the individuals. I have suggested edits to show the dates and places of occurrences but the individual refuses to make the changes. Do I have any recourse to have the edits made?

  4. Please allow me to take this opportunity to thank all of you in your organization for this fine website. It has proved to be treasure of information in researching my ancestors’ extensive past on both sides of the family. I have found many surprises and I have been able to connect with many of my deceased relatives. I sincerely thank you for your effort and commitment. Please continue with this great information site. Best wishes, Lewis G. Sager III

  5. Unable to copy and paste bio in the new bio field. Often our bios are written in word then copied in paste to the bio section. Hopefully this is a temporary issue.

  6. Think the updates to the bio field are pretty awesome BUT don’t like the change in the date field– day of birth use to be a drop down menu– now you have to arrow up or down one number at a time–not good

  7. I noticed that the date a photo was posted is no longer on the photo. I hope is was an oversight and it will be corrected. If it was intentional? I would ask that the date be returned to the photo.

      • While the date the photo was added is important, even better would be the date the picture was taken (if info is available in the meta) or both.

  8. Thanks to Find a Grave, I have been able to locate some of my family members and where they are laid to rest. Thank you!

  9. Easy way to add a profile link to a Bio will be very helpful.

    In a future update, please add a way for us to sponsor our own profile page. Would be nice to get rid of the ads.

  10. How can I get rid of the formatting in the Biographical field? It doesn’t work properly for me. Why does the memorial page go to the “recently deceased” page when I press “save changes”? I am no longer able to add photos after that point. I really, really don’t like these changes and am very discouraged.

    • Hi Nancy, please send an email to support@findagrave.com that includes screenshots and details of exactly what is occurring. Please also include the device you are using and the browser. Thanks for your help. We will troubleshoot this issue and get back to you.

  11. Nice change to the bio section, however, since this change I am unable to paste. The information I copied is on my clipboard, but it will not paste into the bio section. I hope this is just a glitch, otherwise a big problem for me.

    • Hi Louise, please send us the details so we can look into this further. What is the text that is not pasting in to the field. Do you receive an error? What type of device and browser are you using? Any details and screenshots you can provide would be helpful for us to troubleshoot. Please send an email with this information to support@findagrave.com. Thank you for your help.

  12. Bio field links look like the way to associate siblings when parents are not known (or don’t have a FG memorial.) Something that has frustrated me. Finally a way to make these associations. Thanks.

  13. I hope this stuff works for SOMEone. Didn’t work for me. No matter what I selected, not one thing changed.

    -Sam

    • Sam, are you talking about adding a link to a profile? If so, the step-by-step that Find A Grave step-by-step works very well. I find it easier to go to the profile you want the link to go to and copy it first, before clicking on the little link icon.

    • Typing in the field is much better than the drop down list. Errors can easily happen with unintentional scrolling that changes the day. Any slight scroll will change to either the previous or following day or days. It has happened to me many times and is easy to miss.

      • I agree. It is much quicker, and less error prone to just type in the day of the month.

  15. Why do my memorials “suggested edit” and how do I add photos to my memorials

    • On memorials you manage, you’ll see an “Edit” option. For memorials you don’t manage, you’ll see a “Suggest Edits” option that allows you to submit an edit for the manager to review. You can add a photo to a memorial by clicking the “Add Photos” button under the photos on the memorial.

  16. All changes that improve the site are welcome . I suggest a review of the policy for deleting memorials . Currently only the creator of a memorial can delete it . A FG member I have worked extensively recently passed away , he had 100’s of thousands of memorials , also another FG member I have worked with for several years , ended her relationship with FG due to personal issues . She also had thousands of memorials . My point being that no matter what the reason a memorial should be deleted , it can not be . Example : Memorials for living individuals are prohibited , there are many current memorials for living persons . I have verified several , yet there is no way to delete them . I have also found memorials that the current manager has stated are fake memorials , however because they did not create them they can not delete them . I suggest a review process for such cases , with the FG team having final decision . Thank you .

  17. These Feb 2024 upgrades are excellent and welcomed.

    CLARIFY by renaming: (search lists of edits)
    I do suggest you give this option a better name. I think you are referring to the profile pages “Contributions” sidebar box. Nice idea. But infrequent “updaters” might not know what this is or how to navigate to it. Consider a heading name like: “Volunteer Edits List” since these are edits by me for other memorials; and, other volunteers submitting edits to my memorials.

    “Using last name (instead of full name) to search lists of edits.” Excellent!!!

    SUGGESTION: Expand list for &CLOSE RELATIVE section to include either a limited text box or a radial button or drop-down box for [ x ] other relationship: [_____________].
    Explanation: Many of the memorials I have added are for older ancestors or non-first-cousins, etc. I should be able to indicate I have some relationship by DNA or marriage to the that person. The caveat is if the memorial is transferred to another. Then what effect or misunderstanding might arise?

  18. the copy id function is LIFE CHANGING. THANK YOU. I work with a genealogy database where I have to copy and paste different memorial IDs from findagrave to our database extremely frequently. It will take some time for my muscle memory to adjust but I was very happy to discover this change today.

    • Same here. I had to get used to it, because it’s not something that I’ve ever seen before.
      But I once I did, it really saves me time. Less clicks means less pain in my hands. 🙂

  19. The new process to add links is a nice upgrade. I suggest that the sample URL in the “Link Box” be highlighted or allow it to be highlighted by the user so that user knows they are replacing the sample URL and not appending new URL to the existing sample URL.

  20. how can I request a transfer of memorial when the person that made the memorial has passed?

  21. I cannot attach Grave Photos to brand-new memorials that I just created. It doesn’t matter if the individual has been deceased for 2 months, 11 months, or whatever — I cannot upload photos like I could before the recent changes. Moreover, it does not even allow me to EDIT the very memorial I just created, even though it lists me as being the Memorial Manager! I’ve already sent two examples to support@findagrave.com , but will refrain from sending more. Please fix this!

    • Hi David, we are working on a fix for this. Thank you for sending the emails to our support team.

  22. When I do a select and copy the ID is not copied with the rest of the text. The ID must be copied separately.

  23. My Scrapbook used to be my default for flowers. Now I have to select it every time I want to add a flower to a memorial. That is totally annoying. And, why did you make it so we can’t copy and paste into the description anymore. You are making it harder rather than easier to update memorials.

    • Thanks for reaching out. We’ll have the scrapbook bug fixed soon. Please send details regarding copying and pasting a biography to support@findagrave.com. We’ll look into this further.

  24. My dilema is finding where someone else has posted an obituary to one of my findagrave memorials before I became the page manager, and the obituary does NOT go to that person. I have contacted the original person several times and they do not remove it. It would be good to have a removal tool on the page to compensate for this type of action.

  25. I am seeing the bio options when suggesting an edit but haven’t used them yet. My question is when I receive a bio or bio edit from someone who has used these features will I need to fix the options they used or is this just for bringing something to my attention. For example, they add and bold something. I don’t want bolded info in the bio, will it show if I approve the edit?

    • You can make any needed adjustments when you are reviewing the suggested edit. Select ‘Compare’ and then ‘Modify’ to do so.

  27. It would be nice to be notified about significant changes BEFORE they are made. I was seeing changes to screens and started having problems before the notification came out and had no idea what was going on.

  28. While this works in some cases, other times it makes it more difficult. I prefer the “cut and paste” method . . .

  30. I don’t care for the update to the birth and death date fields. The box doesn’t open far enough to see the numbers for the day. There are just up and down arrows. I have to go back in when I create a memorial and do it again from there. I also can’t copy the entire Memorial ID (I keep the ID’s in my database as another source.)

    • Thanks for reaching out. What type of device are you using? Please send an email to support@findagrave.com with the details along with examples and we will troubleshoot this issue. You can type the date into the field now. You can copy an ID by hovering over it and clicking. Is that not working for you? Please send in specifics and we can help.

      • This is very simple to fix. Can you do so? Simply make it look like the display when editing an existing memorial. The problem is not there. It only is when creating a memorial. Thanks.

  31. Is there a way to make html tags work in the bio again? I was using ∼ as a separator. All memorials that had this still have it, but I am unable to add it to any additional memorials.

  33. Why are children and siblings now showing in random order instead oi birth order? Did I miss something, or is this one of the glitches you are working on?

  34. I preferred the memorial lists, like children, sorted by the birth year. Now the list looks like it is random. Maybe the first added is listed at the top.

  35. Using chrome on laptop:
    1. Any way of making the font in the bio box BIGGER (not the box itself)? When my screen is at 100%, the font size – just in the box – is maybe 5pt. It’s barely enlarges when I zoom my resolution past 125%.

    2. Any way of directly cut/pasting text into bio box (like before) instead of having to right click and paste as plain text? If I forget and try to cut & paste, it’s just a blank box.

    3. Any way of turning off default button and indent, eg. I usually put children I can’t locate graves for in parents bio as:
    Additional children:
    – xyz
    – zyx
    Now, I can’t type the dash plus space as it automatically converts it to indent + dot button.
    Additional children:
    • xyz

    4. When I add Auschwitz memorials, before the change, I could start typing “oswie” [with no accent marks] in the death location field and Oświęcim, Powiat oświęcimski, Małopolskie, Poland would show in the drop down list. Now, all I get is “no matching locations found”. It’s time consuming to either use browse location or copy and paste the name from the burial location field.

    Thanks.

    • Thanks for reaching out. Please send an email to support@findagrave.com with screenshot examples along with details. That will help us looking into the font size. We will have some updates for copy/paste soon. There isn’t a way to remove this default for lists. We would like our search to pick up diacritics and will be adding it in the future. Thanks for these questions and for your help. We look forward to hearing from you.

  36. Great changes – however I can not copy/paste my source to add from a bio from an outside page. It will not allow me to paste the information in the bio. Use this extensively – especially to avoid typing errors.
    Bev

  37. The divider no longer works – ∼. This entire text shows up in the bio minus the begining and end Never had a problem before.

    • Hi Louise, we’ll need more details to troubleshoot this issue. Please send an email to support@findagrave.com that includes details, your browser/version, and a screenshot. We appreciate your help!

  38. There appears to be no way to remove hyperlinks. Sometimes I use hyperlinks as temporary until ID links are or if approved.

  39. You have changed the way the birth and death field appears, when either editing or creating a new memorial.

    It now has arrow keys in it. But there is a bug. For my laptop, the width of the field is too small when creating a new memorial. I can only see one digit. If the day has digit (i.e. 10, 11, etc), I can’t see them both.

    However, if I edit an existing memorial, the width of the day field is much wider, so I can easily see both numbers.

    If you compare both forms, you will see the reason for this problem. For an existing memorial, the Location field is allowed to go all the way to right of the web page. For a new memorial, the field stops well short of the right side. Can this be fixed? Thanks.

    • Hi Mark, thanks for reaching out about the date field. We haven’t been able to replicate the date field being smaller on ‘add memorial’ when compared to ‘edit memorial.’ We appreciate your help with looking into this further. Please send an email to support@findagrave.com and include the details, along with your browser/version, and possibly screenshots. Thank you.

  40. Found another bug (uncertain if already mentioned).
    I added a new memorial based on a photo I had taken of the headstone within the cemetery… and I did not have a date of birth. After creating the memorial, I realized that the headstone indicated the person’s age at the time of death “Grave marker includes age at death” – which I know is a item to check near the birth / death dates when creating the memorial, however; once going into Edit mode, that field / selection is not visible to update. Thanks!

  41. I have several ‘burial details unknown’ memorials; often due to wooden crosses that aren’t there anymore. Is there a way to identify the location, for example, Saskatchewan or Alberta.

    I create the memorial from an obituary in a historical newspaper and a death registration. I know the vicinity where the individual is buried but not the exact cemetery. An issue with this came up when another manager created memorials from cemetery records (Grouard, Alberta). She did due diligence and searched the name in ‘Alberta’ or ‘Canada’ for the individual. My memorial, because it didn’t have a location, did not appear in her search.

    If you just search the surname, there are thousands of possibles that appear. I realize that the cemetery information is important but in pioneer years in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the deceased was often buried on the homestead not in a cemetery. It would really help if “unknown burial details” could be attached to a province or state. Is this possible? Putting it in the bio section does not help when searching for an individual in a specific province.

    One manager suggested I shouldn’t post anything if the burial isn’t known. I don’t agree with that at all. Everyone should be remembered.

  42. Would it be possible that the bio box be able to accept the raw html code along with the new formatting options?

    Currently , , and ∼ are all broken and no longer work in the bio box. Some of us that update that field quite a bit have templates that we use which utilize these html codes. Now we have to spend extra time and select portions of text in the bio box then hit the appropriate formatting option to allow for links, bold, italic and insert a series of dashes for the divider option.

    • It appears that the HTML code is stripped from these comments also. I was referring to the A, B, I and SPAN tags which no longer work in the bio field and we are being forced to use the GUI buttons instead.

  43. I don’t like the auto copy of the ID number. I include the “Memorial ID xxxxxxxx” in my data base and it now requires two copy and paste procedures.

    • Thanks for your message. Can you tell tell us a little more about the problem you are having? You should still be able to select “Memorial ID” and the number and then paste that into your database. If you’ll send us a message at feedback@findagrave.com and include a few details about what you were doing before and how it’s not working now, we’ll see what we can figure out. Thanks!

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