WE Seniors Genealogy Meeting – Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Topic: Find A Grave
Presenter: Alison Glass
Alison Glass, a Genealogy Enthusiast and Cemetery Sleuth, spoke at our meeting on her experience and work with ‘Find A Grave’. Alison explained that ‘Find A Grave’ is a free online database and community platform that contains over 265 million burial and cemetery records worldwide. It is owned by Ancestry.com and allows users to save memorial data directly into online family trees. The site lets users search graves on-site, upload headstone photos, and record GPS markers. It relies on a global community of users (“Gravers”) who visit cemeteries, photograph headstones, transcribe records, and fulfill photo requests. Individual profiles often include birth and death dates, cemetery details, headstone photographs, GPS coordinates, biographies, and links to family members.
Alison has been a contributing member with ‘Find A Grave’ for several years and she shared her experiences working with the organization. She explained the steps to contribute to the website, writing a biography of the deceased individual and perhaps adding photographs or articles. The site enables the creation of a memorial to the names appearing on tombstones. Even though a good source for genealogical information on individuals appearing on the Find A Grave website, caution is always advisable to authenticate information that has been added to the site.
Alison has a wealth of experience with ‘Find A Grave’. She has helped numerous genealogy researchers with their quest to learn about their relatives, and she has developed strong, respected relationships with others overseeing and managing cemetery operations. She has been known to report damage and vandalism to cemetery overseers and helped in the documentation of cemetery interments. She shared that she can photograph and document up to 200 grave markers/tombstones in an hour!
We also had the privilege of having Ernie Bastide, a former ETS driver and volunteer at the Edmonton Radial Railway Society, speak on the history of electric streetcars in Edmonton and the work that has been done to preserve this interesting and valuable part of Edmonton’s history. Ernie spoke of the operations at the Radial Railway museum, the work being done to retrieve and restore former streetcars, and the efforts of the group to promote this part of Edmonton’s past. Ernie passed on to the group the upcoming Winter Whyte Light Up (Old Strathcona), a major holiday light-up and celebration taking place just across the river from downtown on November 28, 2026 from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Participants can enjoy free rides on some of Edmonton’s historic streetcars as well as entertainment and food events.
UPCOMING MEETINGS:
Wednesday, December 2, 2026 | WE Seniors Boardroom
Topic: Christmas Cultures from our Ancestral origins and Planning our events for next year
Presenter: Paul Rose (group facilitator)