We have told users when there are not any photos left to transcribe to look for green pins in a cemetery. Green pins indicate that those photos were marked as unreadable and went into an individual photographer's reported images file. BillionGraves decided to re-release green pins in order to get them transcribed and put in the cemetery as searchable. 

Here is one example. The image is a little blurry. Someone had marked it as blurry or unreadable. Here is the transcription. Myrtle Marie Alexander, born April 17, 1901 and died October 28, 1901.  Although the image is not perfect, it is readable.  You have to ask yourself. Is this record worth having the GPS marker, although it is not perfect? The answer is YES!  Hopefully, another photographer will come along and take a better photo, but at least we know with GPS where it is in the cemetery.

Here is one that I would red flag. This one is completely unreadable. There are no letters that can be read on the stone. Once these are red-flagged it removes them back into the photographer's Reported Image files and takes them once again out of the transcription queue. 

If the photo is a newer headstone and looks like this, please send the URL (URLs look like this  https://billiongraves.com/transcribe/25284263) into support as these need to be removed from the site.  These stones are newer and there is a high probability that they will be photographed again. 

Should I red flag this image or keep it? This image was taken in Waterford Rural Cemetery in Saratoga, New York.  Here was another image that was red-flagged by a user. If you can see letters on it, please do not red-flag it!  There are researchers who can figure it out. It looks like this is Catharine wife of Patrick Gary. She died April 1880. I can't read the rest, but at least this image is now searchable. 

Here is how I  personally do the transcription process with these images. If there is absolutely no way an image can be transcribed, red-flag it accordingly. If there is a chance that a researcher could figure it out and you feel that you can't be that person then skip it. If you are a researcher looking for puzzles to work on . . . here is the opportunity. I absolutely love working on these old stones, as I feel it is a labor of love to give these people their identity back, and it allows their descendants to know where their final resting place is. 

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