Wendy Schultz of the Alberta Family History Society takes a picture of one of the markers in the Granum cemetery. The photos will be uploaded to a searchable Web site and aligned with death records.
Many of the people interred at the Granum cemetery would likely never have imagined the world of today.
In their times, anyone wanting information on a gravesite, or to see it, would physically have to go to the cemetery.
The Alberta Family History Society is changing all that, by not only putting the records of cemeteries online but adding photographs of every cemetery marker.
A team of volunteers from the Alberta Family History Society descended on the Granum cemetery last month to take the photographs of the markers there.
Wendy Schultz is the cemetery team lead for the Alberta Family History Society, which is a Calgary-based geneological society in Alberta.
They have created the “Alberta Ancestors” Web site, a searchable site that includes 285 cemeteries, 238,000 names, and 168,000 photographs — and growing.
The address is www.albertaancestors.ca.
Schultz stressed the Web site is free to access. People do not have to be members of the society to access it.
The project dates back to the 1970s when volunteers started recording cemeteries.
“We would just walk through and write down everything visible on every, individual stone,” Schultz said.
All that information was then recorded on a spreadsheet, but there were no photos.
With the advent of technology such as cell phone cameras, volunteers are able to go out to cemeteries and photograph them.
The photos will then be added to and aligned with the records on “Alberta Ancestors.”
Schultz joined the society in 2016, starting as a proofreader.
“I always had an interest in geneology,” Schultz said.
Schultz is now responsible for getting the data and photos to the society’s Web team who “make the magic happen” on-line.
“We always have good volunteers,” Schultz said.
Schultz cautions this is not a quick process as they have about 40 cemeteries in the queue.
Their next trip will be to Canmore in September. Volunteers are also finishing the Carmangay and Stavely cemeteries.
“We’re working our way through the county cemeteries,” Schultz said, noting they like to start with smaller cemeteries because they are easier.
The area the project covers spans Edmonton to the United States border and from the Crowsnest Pass to the Saskatchewan border.
“It’s growing constantly,” Schultz said.
Schultz noted cemeteries are more than names, dates and places.
“We love the stories about the people buried there,” Schultz said. “We want to keep the stories alive.”
Moreover, Schultz loves going to a cemetery and finding new information.
“It’s a lot of fun to come in and add to the knowledge,” Schultz said. “We’re interested in the people.”
The cemetery project came to Granum after local historian Tim Cisar saw an interview with the society.
Cisar initially contacted the society about St. John’s Lutheran Church and Cemetery west of Granum. He had done some research, then Schultz combed the death registry and found some people buried there.
That ultimately led to their visit to the Granum cemetery.
The Alberta Family History Society is always welcoming people to help out.
“We’d be delighted to have volunteers go out to the cemeteries, take photos and send them to us,” Schultz said.
“We don’t want people to be forgotten,” Schultz later added.
Anyone interested in more information can reach the society at cemetery@afhs.ab.ca.
