Cemeteries are among the most valuable of historic resources. They can serve as reminders of various settlement patterns, or they can reveal information about historic events, religions, lifestyles, and most importantly, our genealogy. Unfortunately, these cemeteries do not necessarily remain permanent reminders of our ancestors and past since they are subject to long-term deterioration, neglect, development activities and construction projects, and even vandalism and theft.
Through membership in the Cemeterist Project, volunteers are pledging to aid in the preservation of the world's cemeteries - serving as guardians of our history and heritage - by furthering the project's mission and goals:
- photographing tombstones, markers, monuments, and memorials;
- transcribing the data contained within these photographs to ancestor profiles;
- ensuring that all duplicates are merged to the lowest number;
- honor our ancestors by creating biographies that conform to the WikiTree Style Guide;
- connecting profiles to the main WikiTree family tree;
- finding and adding reliable sources for the profiles we create or edit (e.g., Birth, Marriage, and Death Records; Census Records;);
- identifying and grouping these profiles through the use of relevant cemetery and regional categories; and
- documenting the history of cemeteries through the use of free-space pages.
If you have any questions, or are looking for more information on what a cemeterist does, please see: Getting Started as a Cemeterist.
Otherwise, if you have your camera in hand and are ready to start working your local cemeteries - please submit your 'Answer' below and let us know what area you will be documenting cemeteries in! Answers without this information may result in longer processing times!
