Find A Grave does charge but most don't realize it. It's the ads you see and I believe someone told me the special in memory of feature is also a paid item. As far as I know they have no intention of charging and don't intend to because of the need to preserve the cemetery inventories. They accept lstings with and without a gravestone on the burial spot. They allow the submitter to make corrections/additions, transfer the listing, provide a photo of the gravestone and individual, provide a photo of the cemetery (entrance only or overall shot) and memorials by anyone who wishes to leave it. Some listings have hundreds of memorials and if you read some you'll find that Find A Grave is helping them through their personal loss of a loved one. Not all cemeteries are listed and in some cases several people have submitted listings for the same cemetery but have a different name for the cemetery. If you find a cemetery has been duplicated in name, they will allow you to send them a message and as time permits they will combine the two into one so that it will be more helpful to all. If you go through a county's listing and find a cemetery has been omitted, you can also send them a message given the name, nearest town/community, county and state and they will add it to the county's list. As with all sites, cooperation is the key element. They will meet you in the middle if you are willing to do your part. However, before submitting an entire cemetery listing to any site, please make sure you have the permission of the cemetery board/association if one exists. I know that one cemetery was inventoried and then published for profit without the cemetery board's permission. Upon learning about the situation the board was not happy. Some cemetery boards (or owners of profit making cemeteries) do not allow the cemetery to be inventoried or photographs taken of the gravestones because of the agreement the lot owners signed. Their thoughts were that we have to get the permission of the lot owners. The problem with this is what do you do when the lot owner is deceased. One cemetery owner told me that as far as they were concerned the next of kin could not give the permission. Luckily that cemetery is now owned by someone else and permitted a copy of the burials to be made available to a library. I won't say which cemetery but I will say it's in Madison Co IL. Debbi --- On Mon, 3/30/09, MADMANSMOM@aol.com <MADMANSMOM@aol.com> wrote: From: MADMANSMOM@aol.com <MADMANSMOM@aol.com> Subject: Re: [ILMACOUP] find a grave To: ilmacoup@rootsweb.com Date: Monday, March 30, 2009, 11:11 PM I finally thought I found a website that didn't charge for information and made it readily available. I posted a few graves and my name was mentioned there. I also gave connections as to who these people were. I found ones previously posted and added my notes to either identify the people or add missing information. I am sad to hear that Find A Grave may start being a pay site. That takes all the fun out of genealogy. It's supposed to be about sharing information and then the person you share with shares back. RAOGK worked that way for me. I did some work for a gentleman in Arizona and guess what, he was able to give back and help me. I send out stuff for free as long as I know it's for personal use. I don't like my work being put on a website without my authority because some of it is personal information. I suppose I will share with Find a Grave until they start charging. Mary **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220439616x1201372437/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID %3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62) Check out Macoupin County ILGenWeb page at http://www.macoupinctygenealogy.org/. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ILMACOUP-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message