I got a note from Daniel Horowitz at MyHeritage.com this morning telling me that the MyHeritage Israel team just kick-started their global initiative that we recently announced together with BillionGraves, the project in which they wish to digitally preserve the world’s cemeteries. Following is the majority of the note he sent me.
“We decided that it was important to go out as a team and experience the process of photographing and documenting gravestones using the BillionGraves app, and so 80 members of the MyHeritage team went on a grey and cloudy Sunday morning to the local cemetery – Segula – located in Petah Tikva, Israel. In just 3 hours we captured over 50,000 gravestone images and completed nearly 70% of the entire cemetery.
“It was the largest event of its kind ever held in Israel. In fact, BillionGraves told us that this was the largest single-day cemetery project held so far using the BillionGraves app. With the fast pace growth of the app, it is sure to be surpassed soon with other similar cemetery projects.
“As we know, most of the world’s cemeteries have never been systematically documented nor has their information made available online. In addition, age and exposure to the elements are rendering gravestones illegible, making this project even more urgent. This initiative is really important for genealogists and for everyone in order to make family history available to all.
“We are calling on people around the world to join us in this project, and we are happy to help and guide people in the process with advice and resources. We invite everyone to visit http://billiongraves.com/myheritage to register and download the application. This will help millions of people to discover the final resting place of their ancestors and relatives and the information it includes.”
Please more about their activity in their official blog post: http://blog.myheritage.com/2014/03/myheritage-employees-digitize-an-entire-cemetery-to-kickstart-global-initiative/
