150,000 Gravestones Photographed in One Day

MyHeritage recently reported

I wanted to let you know about a project we undertook this week as part of our global initiative to preserve and digitize cemeteries worldwide, with the help of some friends.

We embarked on a very ambitious goal to digitize Israel's largest cemetery, Holon, collaborating with genealogy companies, genealogy organizations, societies and other volunteers who love genealogy. It was our biggest challenge yet, and one of the largest events of its kind ever organized - in the world!

The day was a huge success! Over 150,000 gravestones were photographed. It is a great model for how similar activities can be organized around the world. 

Please read more about the event in our blog post: http://blog.myheritage.com/2014/12/digitizing-cemeteries-myheritage-is-at-it-again-with-friends

This event was part of the global initiative that MyHeritage and BillionGraves launched earlier this year.  Read more here.

Earlier this year, BillionGraves and The Federation of Genealogical Societies partner to image ALL cemetery markers for WAR OF 1812 Participants.

Collaborations between entities with reach into the individuals who make up our genealogical community and a crowdsourcing-based software such as BillionGraves or a web platform such as Find-a-grave or other up and coming projects, like Cemetery Census, are dramatically increasing the amount of cemetery information available to us.

There is something so very basic and human about wanting to know where our ancestors are buried and ensuring that they “will not be forgotten.”

All of these projects welcome volunteers.

Are you helping or have you helped to digitize the residents of a local cemetery?  Would you like to give a shout-out to local efforts to digitize a cemetery?

Editor’s Note: Recent cemetery posts on Upfront with NGS

+ You Can Help! Institutional Cemeteries Website Seeking Assistance -- Let's Do What We Can to Remember These Often Forgotten Individuals

+ Using Radar To Do Cemetery Mapping and Find Unmarked Graves -- Fascinating!

+ Coffee cafes in cemeteries -- popular in Europe! Might we see the same in the US?

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