Project: Cemeterist

Categories: Cemeterist Project

View the map of cemeteries

Mission

Cemeteries are among the most valuable of historic resources - serving as reminders of various settlement patterns, revealing information about historic events, religions, lifestyles, and providing access to understanding our shared 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.

The Cemeterist Project serves as a functional project that brings together those who are actively creating and/or updating profiles of our deceased ancestors using original photos, research, and reliable sources to support their final resting places. Through membership in the Cemeterist Project, volunteers are pledging to aid in the preservation of the world's cemeteries and our deceased ancestors - serving as guardians of our history and heritage. Without the dedication of volunteers, these spaces and the stories they hold could be lost forever.

How to Join

After answering the G2G post to join the project, how about joining us on the official WikiTree Discord Server? Stop by the 'wikitree-verification' channel and follow the instructions to be verified. Once you are verified, head on over to the cemeteries channel and say 'Hello'!

Goals

The overall goal of the Cemeterist Project is to document the world's cemeteries and those who are interred there in order to create and connect profiles of our deceased ancestors using original content. Cemeterists also serve as a local resource for photography, transcription, and research needs for existing ancestor profiles.

In order to support these goals, members are working to survey cemeteries by taking pictures and transcribing gravestones, and ultimately creating and connecting profiles of those who are interred at these cemeteries.

Tasks

In order to meet WikiTree's global mission and the goals of this project, the majority of our members are expected to partake in a series of tasks in their local areas, including (but not limited to):

1. photographing tombstones, markers, monuments, and memorials;
2. transcribing the data contained within these photographs to ancestor profiles, while also ensuring that all duplicates are merged to the lowest number;
3. honor our ancestors by creating biographies that conform to the WikiTree Style Guide (ask the Profile Improvement Project for help if needed), and are connected to the main WikiTree family tree (ask the Connectors Project for help if needed);
4. finding and adding additional reliable sources for the profiles we create or edit (e.g., Birth, Marriage, and Death Records; Census Records;);
5. identifying and grouping these profiles through the use of relevant cemetery and regional categories; and
6. documenting the history of cemeteries through the use of free-space pages.

Since we realize that not all members can perform all of these functions from start to finish, the project also offers additional ways to be involved and support our goals, through:

• The Elements Cooperative where Ground operations (taking photos and uploading to sandbox) and Data operations (completing transcriptions/ and sourcing profiles) take place; and
• Affiliate status, that serves to recognize those who have, or continue to, contribute to the project's goals by categorizing profiles to their relevant cemetery categories or by using the {{FindAGrave}} template.

If you have your camera in hand and are ready to start working your local cemeteries, or would like more information on the Data operations, please 'Answer' the G2G welcome post linked in the How to Join section above.

Or if you would like to display your affiliate status proudly on your own profile, please use the {{Member|Cemeterist Affiliate}} template.

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Resources

Online Classes and Presentations

• Garner, LaDonna (M.A.). Leafseeker Consulting; RootsTech 2021. Cemetery Research 101: Planning A Research Visit
  
• Garner, LaDonna (M.A.). Leafseeker Consulting; RootsTech 2021. Cemetery Research 102: Cemetery and Headstone Data Collection
  
• Whitman Koford, Rebecca (VG, CGL). The Dead and the Dying: Death Records, Funeral Homes, Cemeteries, Part 1 of 3
  
• Whitman Koford, Rebecca (VG, CGL). The Dead and the Dying: Death Records, Funeral Homes, Cemeteries, Part 2 of 3
  
• Whitman Koford, Rebecca (VG, CGL). The Dead and the Dying: Death Records, Funeral Homes, Cemeteries, Part 3 of 3
  
• Lawthers, Ann G; Lambert, David Allen; McComb, Melanie. The Stones Speak, Part 1: Understanding Gravestones
  
• Lambert, David Allen; Lawthers, Ann G; McComb, Melanie. The Stones Speak, Part 2: Researching Burial Records
  
• McComb, Melanie; Lawthers, Ann G; Lambert, David Allen. The Stones Speak, Part 3: Online Resources for Cemetery Research
  

Books and Publications

• Graveyard Gossip. Graveyard Journal: Cemetery Research Field Log Book. N.p.: Independently Published, 2019.
• Neighbors, Joy. The Family Tree Cemetery Field Guide: How to Find, Record, and Preserve Your Ancestors' Graves. United States: Penguin Publishing Group, 2017.
• Keister, Douglas. Stories in Stone. United States: Gibbs Smith, 2004.

Web Resources

• Farber, Jessie Lie. The Association for Gravestone Studies - Symbolism on Gravestones
• Linford, Margaret. LisaLouiseCooke.com - Cemetery Research for Genealogy: 4 Steps for Finding Your Ancestors’ Graves

This page was last modified 19:21, 9 January 2024. This page has been accessed 54,626 times.