Good job Norma, it is a huge undertaking. I am sure I have some there, but not sure who at the moment. Carmel -----Original Message----- From: australia-cemeteries-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:australia-cemeteries-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Norma Vella Sent: Monday, 16 August, 2010 3:21 PM To: australia-cemeteries@rootsweb.com Subject: [AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES] Footscray cemetery Hi thought I would let you know I am nearing the end of taking photos at Footscray if any one is after any I have over 6000 names quite a few that are not mentioned on the disk regards Norma ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Subject: [AUSTRALIA-CEMETERIES] Footscray cemetery Norma wrote: Hi thought I would let you know I am nearing the end of taking photos at Footscray if any one is after any I have over 6000 names quite a few that are not mentioned on the disk regards Norma Just wanted to congratulate Norma on such a huge undertaking. Very impressive and valuable work which would be especially appreciated by those who have ancestors buried in Footscray. More power to you Norma ! I am a member of the Australind Family History Society (WA) and last year, we set up a project to transcribe thousands of monuments/headstones in the older sections of the Bunbury General Cemetery (WA). We have had tremendous co-operation and encouragement from our local Cemetery Board. I undertook to do the photography (a big learning experience / graves which face East / weather conditions / dealing with shadows / damaged or mutilated monuments / hard to read text / capturing text obscured by icons, floral tributes, in locked glass cabinets/ missing grave markers / solving little puzzles etc). I've taken about 12,000 images so far - sometimes necessary to take 2 or 3 pics of the same burial plot for clarity and to cover all memorials on a grave. The headstones come in all shapes, sizes, and condition. It is quite fascinating to appreciate the range of memorials at a cemetery. They generally give information not available elsewhere - except maybe in death notices in the newspaper. They also document such a lot of social change and burial practices over many decades. Personally, I have enjoyed the experience - and we hope to conclude our project by the end of 2010. I can appreciate the hard work you have achieved Norma - we did not find it easy working out how to display a numbering system which allowed us to immediately match up an image with an individual gravesite i.e. to differentiate one grave from another - - and also facilitated easy location of each and every burial plot in a large cemetery. I found the most time-consuming part is re-naming each image file captured - after downloading from the camera card - in order to quickly identify one photo from all of the others. Our File Names indicate Denominational Section - all known grave occupant/s - name of Cemetery - and so on. However, it is well worth it to have this handy reference when we are requested to search through the images. Our local Funeral Director sponsored the cost of our camera and equipment - when we lobbied for a method to record the personal MI -Monumental inscriptions - at our local cemetery. We simply realised the value and importance of the personal memorial information commissioned by a family for the grave of loved ones, when linked to family history research. It is in fact, hidden heritage, and largely 'missing' from our official death and burial records. Our Group celebrates their 25th Anniversary this year - so we feel that the M.I. transcription database and complementary photography undertaken at the Bunbury M.I. Cemetery Project is a fitting way to record and remember ancestors and to celebrate that facet of Family History in our district. I also expect list members are making full use of the digitisation of the old newspapers by the National Library of Australia 1803 - 1954 to gather information of deaths, funerals, obituaries and in memoriam notices. Website has been available since July 2008. Either: www.trove.nla.gov.au (umbrella search for all types of docs) or 'beta' newspapers at: http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home Good luck with your future endeavours. AFHSoc MI Project Co-ordinator, Jennie Staines Bunbury WA 6230