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Find A Grave review: theft 10

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4:54 am EDT
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I have had similar experiences. This site is a dictatorship and it hides behind the guise of helping others connect with their loved ones. They are despicable!

I have experienced the rudeness of the admins, the failure to respond, and the deletion of years worth of work due to preferential treatment of another member. The member's name is BB - no bio given. At the time of her attack on me, I had been a member for nearly 9 years. The BB member was listed as having been a member for 3 years. She spammed my email box with claims of duplicate listings. I let her know that I did not have duplicates as the originals were incorrect and although I contacted the original creators I had never received an answer. Also, some of her claims of duplicates were just flat out lies. In most cases they were two completely different people. This woman was trolling the entire site 'looking' for duplicates and her wall was filled with messages from other members that complained of her harassment and spamming, all in regards to so called dupes. I told her that I had no idea why she kept hounding me about these so called duplicates when the listings didn't even belong to her. Then one day, my account was deleted. All my work was gone. I contacted the admins but never did get a response. That was 6 months ago and still nothing. I checked the BB profile and suddenly she's been a member for 9 years now. She was able to change that, which tells me she IS the admin. She's one of those "numbers" submitters and couldn't care less if her info is correct or not. She has absolutely no regard for anyone's grief and after my work was deleted SHE entered MY information as her own. So she stole my listings and my photos. These are members of my family. I went back and checked her bio again and now she's been a member for over 11 years! Yep - she's one of the admin. That is downright scary!

Because I had such a negative experience I began doing research on this company. I was amazed at all the negative comments surrounding the findagrave website. When you are the one going through it, you don't realize that others have had the same bad experiences and in some cases much worse ones. There are legions of people complaining about the website. I thought pissedconsumer.com and complaintsboard were the main venting places, but there are many others all over the web.

If there is an example of how NOT to run a website, it looks like findagrave has found it. I have been in contact with well over 100 people that experienced problems, if not out and out harassment from the members and admin of the site. There is actually a lawsuit pending regarding the lost work involved by some of the former members.

The worst part for findagrave though, is they have become a joke to the ancestry.com community. Findagrave thinks it's flexing it's muscles when it deletes accounts and removes other people's work. But what they are really doing is creating dead links that ancestry had listed as relevant information. This has made ancestry.com look bad and they do not take that lightly.

A friend of mine works at ancestry.com and they receive a multitude of complaints about dead links from findagrave all the time. It's my understanding that ancestry has to remove all the findagrave links from their site and disassociate themselves from them.

I mean when you have the largest website in the industry actually linking to your site that's a big deal. But they blew it - All because they wanted a select few to be the big fish in a little pond.

It's mind boggling! Actually, it's a shame because findagrave had an opportunity to be one of the "big" ones but instead they let their egos and troublemakers ruin their chances of ever being taken seriously.

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10 comments
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GigiH5710
, US
Jan 23, 2019 6:18 am EST

Had I read the complaints first, I would have never created a memorial! My photo was stolen 2 days after posting my mom's grave marker, this week! I have had an account for over 13 years, mostly to post condolences but knowing my family would be dying, leaving me to share genealogy as the youngest. The Cyber thief is apparently an inside admin with 20, 000+ memorials, that only joined recently (after me). Probably stolen from members who posted their own family memorials, like me, for genealogy connections. It's not a contest to have the most! But the Maher turds think they are famous? Quit the Cyber stalking and thieving. Being stubborn toward others requests, will get your memorials closed by Ancestry. They (Ancestry) don't want to deal with the Utah Attorney General and all the complaints received. That is where I directed my complaints before... and I got results!

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Anna Douglas Madden
, US
Nov 19, 2018 11:00 am EST

Message claims that it has no record of my email address, and there is no way to function on the site without the original address. Want to be reinstated immediately.

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California66
, US
Oct 27, 2018 5:31 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I received a message on Find a grave this morning from a Tina Jackson Member ID# [protected] with a NUDE PHOTO attached. I don't know what kind of a website you have but it needs to be shut down. What if my daughter had opened this message? You people make me sick. I'm going to do my best to see that Find a grave and Tina Jackson get prosecuted.

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AmitChak
, US
Oct 23, 2018 2:08 am EDT

I got suspended from Find A Grave for uploading "copyright" photographs I took MYSELF on holidays over the years to various religious sites. I will never pay another penny to that scam company.

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Carole Wrubleski Barr
, US
Aug 15, 2018 8:29 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

The phone number for Gulph United Church of Christ listed under cemetery ID 551699 is incorrect. The correct number for this church is [protected]. The lady who has the number listed is not a happy camper. June 9, 2018. Reported by Carole Wrubleski Barr, Find a Grave member #[protected].

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fuckyou2computers
, US
Aug 14, 2018 12:08 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I am Michele Wixom. The late Lynn Wixom Married me after his late wife Gloria. Why is it not listed as that? His O/B stated it . I want it change to than he married Michele Moffat after the death of his first wife Gloria when you look it up it just say he is survived by his family Michele Moffat Wixom it does not say hes wife Michele Moffat Wixom

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Patricia Sacratomato
, US
Nov 23, 2015 4:17 pm EST

Glendy is a contributor to find a grave who continually adds duplicate memorials. She adds information she gets directly from the first memorials. Yet find a grave deletes the original memorial instead of Glendy's duplicates. Not just mine but those entered by others. I spend hours a day, almost everyday, working on my find a grave memorials. Searching ancestry.com to add additional information about the people and link them to family members. I am finished! When my memorials that were deleted are reinstated I may contribute to find a grave again, not before.

Since ancestry.com bought findagrave.com it has not been the same website.

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laurannie
bloomingdale, US
Feb 25, 2014 9:57 am EST

I made the horrible mistake of posting in the forum. Is there ANY way to remove myself from the forum?!

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MnMan
Faribault, US
Sep 25, 2012 9:17 am EDT

The administrator told me they do not have time to investigate both sides of the story.

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JOMCS
Versailles, US
Aug 27, 2012 8:55 am EDT

Totally agree about the self appointed Police on Find a Grave who do nothing but stalk, spam, and destroy very valuable research that some descendants might need and do not have access to, or ability to document families.
One of my friends was just attacked and reported by a the new self appointed "Copyright" Police and shaving cream police. She stalked her memorials and reported them to ### and stated these memorials were duplicates and should be deleted.
I have found several duplicates in using Find a Grave and wrote the submitter, some responded and some did not for whatever personal reason they might have had. Then I dropped it, I am not about to Police ###.
Seems to me with all the technology that ### has access to especially now that they are part of Ancestry.com, they could find duplicates on a daily basis, and notify the members to work it out. For gosh sakes, there are dogs and horses on this site, how serious can it be. This is a public site for sharing information, and unless these Police persons are COPYRIGHT LAWYERS or ### administrators, they need to butt out of other peoples business. If another ### member finds a duplicate or problem they should first politely address it to the other member, and then if they do not get an answer go to ### administration (who in my opinion are not weighing both sides of the argument, ) and if they are a lawyer they can address a complaint to the Legal staff of ###.
What business is it of any other member to Police the ### board? Isn't that the job of the ### administrators who do not often listen to both sides but go with the one who is screaming loudest, and then decide to delete years of genealogy research for no legitimate reason? This could be a very valuable site but if the harrassing continues they will lose lots of members and valuable research. Ancestry.com would then have a "Pig in a Poke", and would probably be very unhappy.