Church of England to launch a ‘Google Maps for graves’ within five years

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Church of England to launch a ‘Google Maps for graves’ within five years enabling family historians to search for burial records and locations in an online database

  • Church of England project will upload images of millions of burials  
  • Database will feature maps and photographs alongside burial records
  • Project will go live in the next five years and has been trialled in two cemeteries 

By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Thousands of cemeteries across the UK will be imaged and mapped over the next five years to create a comprehensive database of British burial sites. 

The Church of England project hopes to immortalise the tombs of millions of people buried in Anglican graveyards as well as those interred on unconsecrated land.

Maps and photographs will be uploaded alongside burial records in a searchable database at some point before 2026.  

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Volunteers partnered with Historic England, which injected £250,000 in funding, and Welsh firm Atlantic Geomatics who provided the technology and expertise to trial the project for two cemeteries in West Yorkshire 

Volunteers from the Church of England have partnered with Historic England, which has injected £250,000 in funding, and Welsh firm Atlantic Geomatics is providing the technology and expertise.  

The database will be used by amateur genealogists to trace their lineage and grave details and monument photos for free, as well as information from the registers. 

Uses may be charged to access other information to help fund the project. 

According to Atlantic Geomatics, the mapping system will allow people to search for a person, add additional records, view reserved grave sites and measure plots. 

The system was trialled at several churches across the country and two sites in West Yorkshire have established their own websites.   

All Hallows’ Church, Kirkburton, and Emmanuel Church, Shelley were the two test sites. 

GRAVES FOUND AT THE TWO SITES SO FAR 

All Hallows’ Church, Kirkburton, and Emmanuel Church, Shelley were the two test sites trialled in the study.  

Monuments at All Hallows’ imaged for the project include the 1845 grave of Benjamin Smith.

He was  a Royal Artillery veteran from the Battle of Waterloo. His medal is depicted on the stone.

Samuel and Lydia Midgley, aged 57 and 46, and their niece Eliza Matthews, 12, also have a monument. 

They drowned when the embankment of the Bilberry Reservoir burst on February 5, 1852, killing 81 people. 

Ten Midgley children — also known as the Greenwood family — are present. All ten died in infancy. 

Volunteers used specialised cameras to take detailed photographs and scans of the graves and monuments as well as transcribing the epitaph and personal information inscribed.

During the trial at the two churches outside Huddersfield, more than 6,000 individual burials were uploaded to the interactive maps.  

Sylvia Johnson, the chairwoman of the volunteer group behind the project in the diocese of Leeds, told The Times: ‘It has been very rewarding to see how the volunteers have worked with Atlantic Geomatics, putting in so much hard work and effort in all weathers photographing the memorials, and transcribing burial registers with old-style handwriting.

‘The team deserve an enormous thank you as their work will benefit so many different people locally, nationally and even internationally.’

Joseph Elders, major projects officer in the CofE’s buildings division, also told the newspaper that the scheme would also attract new members to the church. 

The project also hopes to provide environmental information on the state of the graveyards and identify overgrown areas in need on clearing or pruning.