Find A Grave Project - Potentially 20,000 Photos to Upload!

The Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society (WMGS) held their regular monthly meeting Wednesday night at the Agawam Senior Center in Agawam Massachusetts. Tonight's presentation was given by Al and Betsy McKee of the Longmeadow Cemetery Association who have been photographing 18th and 19th century gravestones along the Connecticut River Valley for many years. Tonight's title was "Cemetery CSI: Causes of Death Found on Gravestones" focusing on the inscriptions on the epitaphs, many of which were quite interesting!

Toward the end of the lecture, during the Q&A, I asked if they had ever uploaded any of their work to Find-A-Grave which they had not. They've posted many photos to the Longmeadow Cemetery Association's website, however. So my proposal was a collaborative effort between WMGS and the McKee's to take on the project of uploading their 20,000+ photos to the memorials that may already exist at the website or add the entire memorial along with their photo. They were more than enthused at the idea!

I put out a call for volunteers at the WMGS Facebook page and Google Community. If this blog reaches anyone who has an interest, please get in touch with me at dave@oldbones.info. We've barely come up with a strategy, but I believe that within a week or so, we could come up with a plan that works for the McKee's, gives WMGS a worthy community project and attracts helpful folks from anywhere who'd like to help.

Thanks!