This usually happens for the following reasons:


#1 Photos were taken before a cemetery was added. This will place the records in the closest BillionGraves Cemetery regardless of how far away it is. 


#2 There are two cemeteries within a few miles of each other that do not have boundaries. 


Here is the perfect scenario from a user concerned about headstone placement and GPS and our solution:


 My wife, Elizabeth Knapper is buried in Brooklyn Hts. Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio, NOT in the Lutheran Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio. 


Here was our answer:


 Your scenario is the best case for why cemetery boundaries are so important. We are  going to give you a very rare look at an administrator's viewpoint that will help you understand a bit:

 


Notice the red arrow pointing to the Lutheran Cemetery Association. The yellow arrow is pointing to Brooklyn Heights. The Blue pin is the cemetery gate GPS marker for Brooklyn Heights. Also note that there are no boundaries around Brooklyn heights. The records will go to the closest cemetery main gate pin, unless a boundary is put around the cemetery. If a boundary is put in place the pins or records within the boundary stay associated with the main cemetery blue pin. The circle has a radius of a few miles.  Any records within that circle  should go into the Brooklyn Heights Cemetery. 


Lutheran cemetery also did not have a boundary.  In fact, our staff just placed one around the cemetery to show you the difference a hard boundary can make. Lutheran's Cemetery circle overlapped Brooklyn Heights, Without boundaries placed, our system thinks that all records within the circle must go to the closest pin belonging to the cemetery gate. Look how wide the circle is.




Here is the grave location for Elizabeth Knapper. If you look at the pin you can see tht she is buried within the Lutheran Cemetery's circle.  By placing a boundary around Lutheran Cemetery, it forces all of the pins to stay in that location. We can ALWAYS fix this issue, it just takes time and a little bit of  BillionGraves "magic".  


 Because there were no boundaries around either of these cemeteries.  Elizabeth's record ends up among the records for Lutheran Cemetery even though she is clearly buried in Brooklyn Heights. 



What can be done? First, if you are from the area could you set the boundaries around the cemeteries involved? There are always much better results, because you know the area, unlike our support staff, who are 2,000 miles away or more. The borders for these cemeteries, however are easy for our staff to set as you can clearly see the boundaries.  We set the boundaries for both Lutheran Cemetery and  Brooklyn Heights and worked our BillionGraves Magic. Brooklyn Heights has over 40,000 images associated with the cemetery, so it will be no easy task to ensure that each of these images are currently in their proper place. 



In order for our staff to work our magic, we will need the URL's of both cemeteries involved. URL's look like this: 

https://billiongraves.com/cemetery/Brooklyn-Heights-Cemetery/76096 

https://billiongraves.com/cemetery/Lutheran-Cemetery/77504 


Please tell our staff that you need to recalculate the borders as some of the records are out of place. (If there are less than 10, these can be done by following these guidelines: See this article.)



You may also need to tell our staff that your family member is listed in our search function in the wrong cemetery. This too will need to be updated. Please give our staff the URL of this record as well. Let us know which cemetery did not have a boundary. 


https://billiongraves.com/grave/Elizabeth-I-Knapper/9693043 


After placing boundaries around the cemetery, working BillionGraves magic, and updating the individual record, Elizabeth's record is now appearing in the proper cemetery.



This could have all been prevented if a boundary had been put in place from the start.  If you have local cemeteries in need of boundaries we are asking all who are willing to help us with this to do so. As being a western American based company, we have to guess on these  by looking at them geographically. Most of the time we get them right, but occasionally we need the help especially in areas surrounded by trees and vegetation. 


If this has happened to your local cemetery please set boundaries and let our staff know that you would like a recalculation. Please also provide the URL's of cemeteries involved.  


Thanks A Billion!