Proposal:Find A Grave cemetery and grave IDs

Find A Grave cemetery and grave IDs
Proposal status:	Proposed (under way)
Proposed by:	Ssterling
Tagging:	ref:find_a_grave=*
Applies to:	node, area, relation
Definition:	Unique ID for a grave or cemetery found on Find A Grave
Statistics:
Draft started:	2021-03-09
RFC start:	2021-03-11

Proposal

One new key will be created that is most rationally used on a node, area or relation tagged as a cemetery or grave: ref:find_a_grave=*. The value of this key on objects tagged with amenity=grave_yard, landuse=cemetery or similar will correspond to the cemetery’s ID on Find A Grave. Likewise, the value of this key on objects tagged with cemetery=grave, historic=tomb or similar will correspond to the grave’s ID on Find A Grave.

Rationale

The wikidata=* key is a great way of providing users a portal to extra information for a specific geographical feature without cluttering or bloating the OpenStreetMap database. However, Wikidata’s notability policy prevents certain things from being added, including (but not limited to) small, poorly documented graveyards and cemeteries. Find A Grave—the de facto standard reference for cemetery and grave documentation—actively encourages adding such places both big and small, as well as specific graves within these cemeteries. Linking the physical location of a cemetery to its corresponding Find A Grave entry would greatly help genealogical researchers working with geographical data using OSM.

Tagging

Basic use of the key is described in the proposal section.

Note that, because Find A Grave’s database is international like Wikidata, regional prefixes (i.e. ref:US:find_a_grave=*) will be unnecessary.

Examples

Shinnston Memorial Cemetery Shinnston Memorial Cemetery may be tagged with ref:find_a_grave=1132446, corresponding to cemetery #1132446. Similarly, Pierre Charles L’Enfant Pierre Charles L’Enfant may be tagged with ref:find_a_grave=591, corresponding to grave #591.

The IDs of cemeteries and graves may be found in both the URL and at the bottom of their Find A Grave page and are not on-the-ground verifiable.

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.