Cemetery records will map family history
Cemetery records allow families in other parts of the world to find out about their family history.
The South and East Witwatersrand Family History Society is a group of people who visit cemeteries and take photos of tombstones.
Project leader Ken Mutch and his team visited the Geduld Cemetery on Saturday.
Mutch explains that his group records the details of every grave in the cemetries located in the east and south of Gauteng. Apparently there are many other groups taking photos of all the cemeteries in South Africa.
“We all belong to the Genealogy Society of South Africa (GGSA) where the information of every grave we record, is published.
“These records are used all over the world by family members who have moved to another country and want to see their history.”
When visiting the society’s site, people can enter a surname to search where their family members were buried or to access other information about the grave site.
“It’s much easier to record the graves nowadays compared to when I started. Back then we had to record everything by hand,” says Mutch.
He adds that the project may take a year or more to complete as there are thousands of graves to be recorded.
“This information then needs to be added to the database, so it’s a rather lengthy project to undertake.”
Mutch has been keeping records of cemeteries for about 20 years, when his interest began after studying his family history.
“I started out by transcribing the handwritten notes given to us by other cemetery record keepers.”
The group will visit the Geduld Cemetery about once a month until they have captured all the graves.
“When a person has been cremated and there is a wall of remembrance, we take photos of the wall to capture it on our database,” he says.
