Groundspeak Portal

I know from the subject that this is going to get an immediate NO, because there has to be atleast 5 million veterans in the United States alone, not to mention world wide. The real problem is that I don't have a good title for this so please read on and see what you think.

First some reasoning: I am an American Civil War buff, and often times find a great or even interesting story that goes along with a veteran. Where can this be waymarked?

Second, the limitations: This is not a category for duplications. If it is a Revolutionary War grave, it belongs there as well as any story or knowlege that goes along with that veteran. This would go for Medal of Honor graves. This leaves countless numbers of people that contributed a lot, or have a significant or even interesting past that needs to be told. I had thought about "graves of a famous person," but consider the abreviated story that follows:

I have been researching for several years the "Palmyra Massacre" (look for the waymark I posted for the complete story). I have been trying to find the graves of the subject, and have found one of them. The one has a very intersting story, that he was the one that was substituted for a previously selected man. While unremarkable in life, his death at age 20 seems to me to be tragic and remarkable because of first the circumstances and second the execution story.

This being said, to me the person would not go under a "famous person."

To me the waymark is about the story almost more than the location. If a person isn't able to generate a past of the person, this isn't the category that would accept the waymark.

Not to go to far, but I also can see a similar category for non-military graves... but again... no good thoughts on a name.

You have identified the main problem with a Veterans Graves category... over prevalence.  I can go to any of the large cemeteries and there will be 1,000's of veterans graves.  In the Civil War it is believed that here were near 700,000 who died during the war alone let alone the 2.5 million who survived the war but of course have died since.  If you look at World War II there were roughly 16 million U.S. veterans of that war and many millions more around the world.  Even limiting to those that have a story... well they all have a story... some known some not.

I would thing the task to be too daunting. You'd probably have a better chance at starting a category for veterans who's last name starts with A and the B and so on and have numerous people running the 26 different groups. Even then I think it would be overwhelming. You might end up reviewing 50,000 the first year alone and how do you know they've all been researched properly. Someone quoting what the read in a library book doesn't allow you to double check in an instant online. I thought about a Revolutionary War Veterans. I believe it was BruceS that pointed out how much work a category like that would be. I'd like to see some type of a memorial to all veterans. If you could identify all of them in a particular cemetery you could add their names to a world wide cemetery listings but it wouldn't reach your intended target audience. Wish I could help you. Swizzle

For your specific Palmyra Massacre graves, I would add the coordinates of the graves to your Palmyra Massacre waymark.  Thus you would be sharing them with those interested in that event in history.  If you find a few more then you might consider making a Waytour of the these along with other points of interest for the Massacre.

Waytour!

Good call, Bruce!

That would be an excellent solution for this sort of situation.

Here is my thought to expound a little bit...

Waymarking is all about the location. I realize the magnitude of the suggestion, but not every grave is going to have a story, that atleast is known. Being a veteran, I often feel that the unsung hero is often forgotton. In this case, a Confederate Soldier may not be a hero in our eyes, but there is a story to be told.

When I first started waymarking, I didn't put as much effort into the waymark as I do now, particualy some of the historical waymarks that have taken days to compose, research and quite frankly for me, enjoy. I guess the category that I am looking towards is one that you could not do for every grave.

It is the sort of write up that should be given to a Medal of Honor grave. What happened... why did they receive the medal... etc. Again to my past, not being an officer, the person in the trenches often gets forgotten. I am not opposed to putting the coordnates in the memorial, I guess I am looking for something more than that, and significantly less than Veterans with last names from A to C, D to F... etc.

A category for Graves of Unknown Soldiers has yet to be created.

But there is a category for graves of the unknown.

cldisme:

Waytour!

Good call, Bruce!

That would be an excellent solution for this sort of situation.

Waytour would be good but it may be a great Best Kept Secrets waymark as well.

The category idea is a thoughtful one but it would be hard to administrate and with the limitations mentioned it would become subjective in nature. Subjective categories always wind up becoming troublesome because what one feels a wonderful fit another feels it doesn't. It winds up being the WOW factor conundrum/Catch 22.

gparkes:

But there is a category for graves of the unknown.

I wrote the Graves of the Unknown category with the concept of John Doe and my officers and I firmly decided that the category will never accept military out of respect for not mixing the two. Regardless of stating this in the description, we still receive a number of soldier graves submissions. It sucks to have to decline, but more importantly to notice, there's an obvious demand for such a category.

I've even talked about this before: Category Suggestion: Graves of Unknown Soldiers

And you contributed to that thread.

I had slept since then, but I sure had, almost a year ago. I guess my thoughts haven't changed too much, other than maybe I have been swayed to understand the hundreds of thousands of unmarked soldier's graves, as I really have noticed how many there are in comparison with the civilian unknowns. I still think there is a need for that as well.

gparkes:

I had slept since then, but I sure had, almost a year ago. I guess my thoughts haven't changed too much, other than maybe I have been swayed to understand the hundreds of thousands of unmarked soldier's graves, as I really have noticed how many there are in comparison with the civilian unknowns. I still think there is a need for that as well.

It would be a daunting task to craft a category that could appropriately handle the matter, but I believe it can be done. If there's a way to articulate which gets waymarked (single grave, cemetery section, or cemetery) based on the number of Unknown Soldier graves in a given location, then there's a structure and the biggest concern over an overwhelming number of potential waymarks is handled while still giving focus to those Unknown Soldier graves which may not have been given their due honour.

Another thought... what about a category of "Interesting Stories," "Waymarks with a story," or something like that...  I saw another post that made think of this as a way that could address what I am really trying to accomplish.  This would go along with the same thoughts as "Wierd Stories" and "Urban Legends," but would not accept waymarks posted to these categories.