Project Aims

The gravestone photographic resource project is an attempt to provide a much needed on-line resource for family historians.

The project aims are as follows:

to digitally photograph all UK grave monuments for people born before 1900 that are currently legible
to extract all legible personal information (name, age, date of birth, date of death, relationship) from each image
to publish all legible personal information on an internet database and make this data freely available
to email copies of any grave monument image free of charge to anyone requesting a copy
to lodge at appropriate public record offices collections of images appropriate to that area
to encourage local groups to maintain, photograph and record grave monuments
to extend the scope of the project beyond England

Please note that in some cases where the legibility is poor, names and dates shown on the online database may not be accurate.

Monuments become illegible because of a number of different factors:

Water errosion - cause by rainfall
Frost damage
Plant damage - usually by lichen
Polution - acidic rain dissolving alkaline rock
Vandalism

The date of birth has in most cases been calculated from the age given at death. The age given on monuments is often incorrect and so dates of birth should be consided as probable rather than actual. In some cases the date of death may also be inaccurate due to the poor condition of the gravestone.

It is hoped that the project will be self-financing by income from donations or the Google ads on the site.

The project is initially concentrating on East Anglia where its creator Charles Sale is based. He has already indexed both church and municipal cemetaries in Norfolk and Suffolk as well as a number of other English counties. Other volunteers have extended the scope of the project which now covers a number of countries beyond England.

The timetable for other parts of the country will be very dependant upon where other volunteers are based and how much time they can give to the project.

Normally all the monuments in a burial ground of people born before 1900 are first photographed. These images are then used to extract all names and details from each monument. Once all the images have been processed, the information is added to the internet database. The A to Z index is updated at the same time.

In some cases we have been able to use earlier text based surveys of churchyards. These have allowed us to record information about grave monuments that have either become illegable or can no longer be found. In these particular cases no images are available.

In the future we hope to provide a “notice board” on which visitors can place details of the families they are researching.

You can help by:

Becoming a volunteer
Making a donation

The main reason why the Gravestone Photographic Resource does not charge for images is that it needs volunteers to help with the huge task of photographing grave monuments. Please try and help.