Render honour to whom honour is due.
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of
double honour…
…these stones shall be for a memorial…
Find-A-Grave is
a World Wide Web site with burial and other final disposition information,
containing details about the cemeteries and the individuals buried in them. The
site allows volunteer contributors from all over the world to participate in
recording and preserving information such as birth, death, burial information
as well as including pictures, biographies, and “links” to other family
members. Find-A-Grave has a million+ contributors, according to their “About”
page.
Using Find-A-Grave, Baptist history researchers
can contribute to Baptist history preservation. Investigate the life of a
Baptist. Find out when he or she died and where that person is buried. Add a
memorial to Find-A-Grave (if a memorial does not already exist). If a memorial
already exists, you can contribute pictures, biographical information and
suggestions to improve the memorial. You just need to create an account and get
to work.
Be aware that the general rule is to add
individuals whose burial locations are known. Find-A-Grave “supports common
alternative dispositions,” such as cremation, burial at sea, and body donated
to medical science. “Non-cemetery burials” – it is not known where they are
buried – are allowed but discouraged.
Be careful that you contribute well-researched and
accurate information. It does not benefit Baptist history preservation if the
information we contribute is incorrect. Check and double-check. We all make
mistakes, but when mistakes are discovered, be quick to correct them.
Be thorough by adding pictures and biographical
material, as well as linking to other family members. In addition to the bare
minimum of birth, death, and burial information, Find-A-Grave allows pictures
of the tombstone, person, and other relevant information (newspaper obituary,
e.g.). There is biographical space available for telling the person’s story,
and memorials can be “linked” to other family members who are on Find-A-Grave.[i]
Be gracious. Most, if not all, Find-A-Grave
contributors are there because they care about genealogy, history, and
remembrance. Some members are prickly pears whose way must be their way or the
highway. Some members are consistently careless contributors. Do not be either
of those, but be gracious to those who are.
Some Baptist preachers for whom I have been
looking and have not found on Find-A-Grave include Ambrose
Dudley (Kentucky), Joseph
Roberts (Georgia), and Edmund
Shackleford (Georgia). I have been unable to find where they are buried,
but hope to one day add them to Find-A-Grave. I recently added Cyrus White (last
year), one of the organizers of the General Association in Georgia in 1822; John
Milton Sallee (this month), author of the Baptist novel Mabel Clement; and the Harriss
Family Cemetery (last week) in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, burial
location Separate Baptist preacher Samuel Harriss and his wife Lucy – which did
not previously exist on Find-A-Grave.
Find-A-Grave is one more tool currently available
to contribute to Baptist history preservation. Three reasons to use
Find-A-Grave in connection with Baptist history preservation are: (1) It is
there, (2) It is big, and (3) It is free.
[i] The memorial “owner” can
link the person to their parents and spouse, but not to their children. If
another Find-A-Grave member “owns” the memorial page of a child, request for
such links can be made through a “suggested edit” process.
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