Grave Photographs, how and why

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I recently had a long phone chat with one of the Field descendants that receive the Field Family Newsletter about my cemetery walks. He wanted to know how I prepare for the trip, the equipment I use, and my technique. Rather than simply email him, I thought I would kill two of the proverbial birds with the one hunk of gravestone (grin) and give a basic rundown via the newsletter.

Once I decide on a location to go, I will use maps and other on-line sources to pinpoint any cemeteries on the way. Why drive 200km each way to go to a cemetery for a few hours, when you can take a full day and visit a few others on the way. I have found many relatives graves by doing this.

Armed with a list of cemeteries, I then use my Family Tree Maker to create a number of custom reports. I start with a list of people that I know have died and been buried in a particular cemetery. I then add people that died in the same town and often neighbouring towns as well. I remove those that have been buried in other towns, leaving a list of people that are, and that could be, buried in a particular town.

From this list I fill usually print a simple alphabetical list of the surnames of the people in it. Rather than looking for 3 specific Morris, 4 Fields, and 1 Strickland, I just add the surnames to the list. When I enter the cemetery, I read over the list a few times, then begin. Sturdy shoes, long pants, a hat and sunglasses are a must, as is a supply of cool drinks, especially in hot weather.

I use a Fuji Finepix S7000 digital camera with a 2GB Compact Flash Card and a 256MB XD card as a "Backup". I also carry 2 or 3 spare sets of AA NiMH batteries in the car as well, but I usually manage 300+ photographs on a set of batteries before they need replacing.

Using my digital camera, each time I see a surname that is on my list I will photograph the grave and move on. It is easier to sort through 20 or 30 photographs at home, than realising that at the cemetery 400km away, the "George Morris" you did not take a photograph of was actually a relation and you did not realise at the time!

As you do this a few times it becomes relatively easy. I often repeat the less-common names over in my head as I walk, and look at each grave in turn to see if the name is on my list. After 10 or 15 minutes you only occasionally have to refer to the list, as you memorise the names you are looking for. If a name is not on the list, but sounds "familiar" then I photograph it as well. The hardest bit is remembering where you are up to, especially if the rows are offset, or uneven as is often the case in older cemeteries.

When I return home from a trip I then open up the family tree on one screen and the pictures on the other (My PC has a 19" LCD monitor as the main screen, and a 17" CRT monitor as the second screen). I look up each of the people in the picture. If they are a match then I move the picture to a folder name "????? Match", where ???? is the cemetery name or location (Don't forget the state name too). The ones that don't match are not discarded, but instead are placed in a separate folder that indicates they are no match. I occasionally go through these a year or so later to see if I have since added some line of the family that I may have taken photographs of some time before. When I did this recently for the photographs in Forbes, I found another 8 graves I did not realise I had.

For the webpage, I then copy these match pictures, resize them to a set size, and save them in a separate directory for each cemetery. Details of the person, and a link to the photograph is added to the web pages, and the page is uploaded to the server. The sorting, converting and manually adding the details to the webpage can be quite time-consuming, especially if there are a large number of photographs, so I usually set aside a day or more to do it after a trip.

On a large trip it is not uncommon for me to take 500 photographs, but end up with only 50 or 60 "Matches", so you can understand the need for a large storage card for the camera (Or a laptop as I usually use). I have had some trips where I have taken 200+ photographs in a number of different cemeteries, come home and found not a single match. Then again, I have spent many days walking by myself in a cemetery, muttering names under my breath, often being cautiously watched (or spoken to) by mourners... And you think you have problems (Grin).

I hope this gives you an idea of the work behind the family tree site, and the associated grave photographs. It is sometimes hard, exhausting and tedious work, but it is always enjoyable, especially when you receive a simple thank-you from a visitor to the site.