etiquette and formality of photographing in cemeteries

[roofy]

Hi,
I am new to genealogy and to this website/forum. I am happy to photograph whole cemeteries full of gravestones and index them [ooh what a lovely thought;)] but I cant find anything on this board about etiquette/sensitivity issues, formality and legality issues regarding the photographing of gravestones and memorials.
I look forward to hearing your opinions,
Best
Roofy

[ainslie]

A personal view:  I know of nothing to prevent you from taking photos of memorials.  You would be doing a great service if you made your results available to the church or cemetery authority and to the local record office or main library.

As to etiquette, I think you need to think of those attending funerals or visiting graves and keep clear while they are present.  For a churchyard, you might speak to the vicar/rector or churchwarden;  for a cemetery, there  should be an office and person in charge (probably at council offices), where it might be courtesy to tell them what you are doing.

In any case, what a task you have set yourself!  There may be many FH hunters who will be grateful for your efforts, or none!
A

[old rowley]

morning Roofy and welcome to Rootschat.
I too take photographs in graveyards, albeit only the one, as I tend to deal with the history of the nearby village to me and it has a small graveyard that surrounds the church. When I first started to take the photographs I was ever mindful of the fact that it was a graveyard (hard to miss really ) and that some my not like, or wonder, just what I was doing so I always made a point of explaining to people who I saw there exactly why I was taking the photographs etc.

The point about taking other peoples feelings in to consideration is a valid one and I always make apoint of not taking any photographs where people are present. Because it is a small graveyard I also take a written note of the inscription on the memorial as over time these inscriptions get worn or letters tend to go missing making it harder to read. By doing this I not only have a photographic record of the grave but also a readable (in most cases) transcription of the headstone.

I have been lucky in being able to walk in to the churchyard and take photographs when ever I want due to the fact that I have delt with the church in question in the past and have, on occassion given talks to their groups about the history of the area but I still approached someone in the church community about me taking photographs of the headstones out of courtesy so that people in the church office knew that I was doing this.

As far as I am aware there is nothing stopping you from taking the photographs anyway except the fact that you will be entering someone else's property to do so, i.e. the church or council owned land and it is always best to ask in the first instance rather than being approached as you are snapping away by someone who works there who knows nothing about you being there.

Also if you were to make a financial gain from doing this i.e setting up a service whereby you are charging for a photograph of a grave to a relative who can not get there theirselves, the church or local authority may not allow you to do it, don't forget most churches charge for information when someone writes to them for information about their long lost rellie so they may ask for a donation from you. However one way around this is to offer a disc with the photographs on to the church for their records.

As for what you are setting yourself in doing this there may be many who will appreciate it or as ainslie has said there may be none, but what ever, and how, you approach this "project" you will get enjoyment out of it as you will have the knowledge that you have taken the time and trouble to preserve a slice of the history of the area(s) around you for others in the future.

OR

[Old Mother Reilly]

Roofy:

How pleased I would be to find someone had photographed some of my long-lost burials - particularly as a couple of the cemeteries I have family buried in are now closed to public access.  However, I think you are right to address what could be a sensitive issue before you start.

Here is an excellent site for Wiltshire churches which provides photographs of many memorials and gravestones and they explain how they operate with regard to gravestones, etc:
http://www.oodwooc.co.uk/Notes.htm
so it might be worth a look.

Rachel

[roofy]

thankyou all for your feedback and Ive checked out that site, thankyou. I would probably avoid weekdays anyway but will certainly avoid times when there are services, apart from the respect issue, i would feel too self concious. im not sure how practical this is and having seen the mammoth task at oodwooc.co.uk Im starting to blanch at how massive a task it would be. Im just going to do it as much as I can and share my results. I dont drive so it would be an as and when project anyway but the trained librarian in me would make sure everything was indexed properly:)
Best
Ruth

[flst]

Hi,might I suggest that you check with local family history societies first? It would be a shame to duplicate any work already done on a specific graveyard when I imagine  there are loads of ones still to be done. Remember that the graveyard may already have been done even if there's no publication yet. The graveyard may already have all the indexing done,and I'm sure everyone would  be delighted with your photographs!
Welcome to rootschat & genealogy!
flst