Doing the obvious: reading the FAQ

I un-disappeared my dad this afternoon.

I have wrestled with the "disappearances" of people who are cremated. And sure, they are no longer on this plane, and sure, it makes sense for them to disappear, but in light of all the stones out there that get read by cemetery-walkers, grave-caretakers, and dog-exercisers, it just bothered me that cremated people seem to disappear from the records.

Even people without headstones are recorded. I could show you where my grandfather, Frank Davis is buried: it's just a patch of grass, but the records are in the sexton's office. -- This is an image I found of a different Frank.

Find-a-grave is a common tool to find where someone is buried, and to find more information about someone. When I found it, I looked up everyone in the lines I'm researching. You'd be surprised at the information that can be found. It's a wiki, so always bear that in mind.

Each time I looked at my grandparents' records, I could see three of the children connected to that record, and my dad was always missing. Because he doesn't have a grave. I assumed.

Today I did the unthinkable. I not only signed up (again) to Find-a-grave. (They have revamped the site and erased my previous registration.) But I read the FAQ. Oh my!

We can still enter people who don't have a burial site. Now dad is again (recorded as) one of the four children.

Moral of the story, and a common lesson told to genealogists: Never assume.