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October 28, 2011

Challenge: Donate 15 Minutes of Your Time Each Month

Lorine in Cemetery
Did you know that in 15 minutes you can photograph 30 to 45 tombstones? That's right. 15 minutes. Yesterday hubs and I impulsively decided to stop and photograph tombstones in the United Church Cemetery in Hillsdale Ontario.

It was a frigid day - 3' C (39' F). It was windy which made it feel even colder. We weren't sure we could stay out long enough to photograph the entire cemetery even though it is small with only about 150 stones.

Hubs is much faster than me. I have some mobility issues and I use a cane. I can't walk as fast. But in 30 minutes we took 164 photos.  That's an hour for one person. That's almost 3 photos every minute.

Just think how many cemeteries could be photographed and put online if every genealogist donated 15 minutes of their time each week or even once a month! How many of us, no matter how busy, can't find an extra 15 minutes a month?

The Challenge

So here is my challenge to you:  

*Before October ends, drive to a local cemetery and spend 15 minutes photographing tombstones*

If you want to email them to me (olivetreegenealogy @ gmail . com)  I will create a Cemetery Walk video of your photos on the Olive Tree Genealogy Channel where everyone can view them. If you have another site you want to donate to, that's great too!  Find-A-Grave and a few other sites accept uploads of such photos.

If you haven't walked a cemetery to take photos of the tombstones, try it. You'll like it! Maybe you'll donate another 15 minutes of your time in November. And December. And January and..... you get the picture (pun intended)

8 comments:

The Grandmother Here said...

When I saw the title I thought you were going to write about indexing at Family Search. There are so many ways that we can help each other. I love finding gravestones online. Many thanks!!

Claudia said...

That is a great idea. There is a small cemetery about one half mile from me and I have not found any photos on line of this cemetery.

That could be my good deed for the month.

Christine Woodcock said...

I have a feeling I know how I will be spending my day on Sunday!

Sammi said...

Try billiongraves.com, fantastic!

Unknown said...

I have a lot on my computer from Warren and Washington Counties in NYS...will share with anyone.

Olive Tree Genealogy said...

Wanda, if you send your photos to me (olivetreegenealogyATgmail.com but change the AT to @) I will post them online for all to see

GeneJourneys said...

Last June I waded through thick brush and weeds in order to find as many headstones as possible at Bay View Cemetery in Gloucester (see my adventure here! <)http://wp.me/p1XMX4-1a>, MA. Unfortunately, the cemetery needs considerable maintenance and I was unable to find my ancestor, Benjamin Bradstreet, but did want to make the photos of other headstones available to others. That is generous of you to post to your online account...eventually I WILL get them on F-A-G...but until then, will definitely email you the files for posting on your online site. Thanks for such a generous offer.

Olive Tree Genealogy said...

GeneJourneys - that's great, please do email the photos and I will put them online. I've already received photos from one genealogist who accepted the challenge :-)

Wanda - if you send those photos to me, I will put them online