PROJECT Gravestone Photos
Project leader
Riana le Roux
The project was initiated and is managed by the eGGSA branch of the GSSA - and involves most of the other branches.
Description
Whether you call them tombstones (the stone placed on top of a stone coffin), a gravestone (the stone slab covering a grave) or a gravestone (typically markers denoting a grave), today all these terms indicate a marker at the head of the grave. In this project we call them gravestones, which include memorials, monuments, and memorial plaques.
Gravestones have traditionally been a good starting point to finding information on family and unravelling one’s own family history.
The project is regarded as an extension of and preservation of the monuments in the graveyards all over South Africa, honouring those who have gone before us, by preserving their memory. The photos are captioned with names and dates as they appear on the gravestones.
The aim of the project is the systematic recording of gravestone inscriptions on South African related graves. Tomorrow those gravestones may no longer be there.
The project is also referred to as the Gravestone Project in the eGGSA context, where the photo albums also reside.
Deliverables
The captioned photographs of gravestones are made available in alphabetical albums, searchable by name, cemetery etc. – free of charge. The albums currently contain over 925 000 photos, with many more photos still to be processed.
Invitation
Members of the public are invited and encouraged to lend a helping hand and donate photographs. You are welcome to contribute photographs of South African gravestones by submitting them to Riana le Roux (see below).
- View the gravestone photo collection.
- Search for names in gravestone photo collection.
- Search for cemeteries in gravestone photo collection.
- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. your gravestone photos for the albums (up to 10Mb via email)
- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. information to make special arrangements (if larger than 10Mb, via email).
- Download a guide for taking gravestone photos.
- Download a guide for planning your trip.
