Findmypast and BillionGraves announce partnership to make rich historical content accessible to everyone for free

The following is from FindMyPast.

Findmypast and BillionGraves announce partnership to make rich historical content accessible to everyone for free

Industry leaders are working together to make more than 12 million grave markers available to everyone, making it easier for families to discover their unique story for free.

Salt Lake City, Utah, 13 February 2015.  Findmpast and BillionGraves announced today that they will partner to add more than 12 million grave marker indexes to family history websites mocavo.com andfindmypast.com. With the shared goal of making family history more accessible to everyone, this unique content will be available on all three websites for free.

New records: 12 million grave marker indexes available for free

The partnership will offer all Findmypast and Mocavo subscribers free access to more than 12 million headstone records including GPS tagged headstone indexes and images that will link back to BillionGraves.com.

BillionGraves preserves precious records found in cemeteries throughout the world, using modern technology to capture images of headstones with their GPS locations so users from across the world can access those records anywhere. 

Findmypast is making it easier for everybody to discover their family history. The BillionGraves mission complements that goal, and along with Findmypast’s commitment to offer more free data and innovative search tools, the BillionGraves partnership will make it easier for everybody to explore their family’s story and bring their past to life.

The two organizations will also work together to provide other initiatives that will help make family history and preservation efforts more accessible to the entire community.

Findmypast Executive Vice President Ben Bennett said, “This new partnership will help our customers to make new connections in their research.  It marks another step in Findmypast’s journey to make more data accessible for more people who want to connect with their family.” 

Hudson Gunn, President of BillionGraves said, “We are delighted to work with Findmypast to make the BillionGraves collection accessible to their growing user base world-wide. At BillionGraves we are working to provide a comprehensive family history database for records and images of the world’s cemeteries-but it’s not something we can do alone. Collaborating with Findmypast in this and other initiatives in the future will provide incredible value for millions of families and preserve this valuable data for generations to come”.

About FindmypastFindmypast is an international leader in online family history and genealogy research with customers and operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. Its searchable online archive includes over two billion family history records, from parish records and censuses to migration records, military collections, historical newspapers, the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) and lots more. For members around the world, the site is a crucial resource for building family trees and making family connections.

 Findmypast has an unrivalled record of innovation in the field of family history, and works closely with the genealogy community, including local libraries, archives, societies, and other organizations from around the world, to preserve, digitize, and provide access to historical records. Findmypast’s historical records, advanced search tools and accurate data work together to help both professional and budding genealogists discover, explore and share their family stories.

About BillionGraves

With more than 12 million GPS headstone records created by more than 140,000 volunteers in just 3 short years, BIllionGraves is the largest resource for GPS gravestone and burial record data on the web.  BillionGraves collection reaches every country and supports 25 languages for desktop, iOS, Android, and now Windows phones making it the most versatile application for genealogists all over the world. BillionGraves' mobile GPS tracking technology in its mobile applications perpetuates this progress, bringing a wealth of genealogical information right to your fingertips.

For more information please contact press@findmypast.com or info@billiongraves.com

MyHeritage and BillionGraves Join Forces to Digitially Preserve the World Cemeteries

The following is from MyHeritage.

We're excited to announce that MyHeritage has teamed up with BillionGraves to launch a global crowdsourcing initiative to digitally preserve the world’s cemeteries.

Gravestones play a very important role in genealogy. They provide vital information such as the person’s name, the names of close relatives and dates of birth and death. They often describe the deceased’s character and personality, providing a glimpse into the person’s life. However, billions of gravestones in thousands of cemeteries worldwide have never been documented nor has their information been made available online.

In addition, time is chipping away at the gravestones and many are becoming unreadable over the years. Age, and exposure to the elements, means that what is written on the stone eventually fades, making it harder, and sometimes impossible, to read them and know who has been buried there.

Today we have the necessary tools - it is up to our generation to preserve these headstones and store their valuable information online for the future.

BillionGraves is a one-of-a-kind application, available for both iOS and Android, which uses patent-pending technology to enable users to photograph and document gravestones. With the help of MyHeritage, the app will be available in 25 languages, and support Gregorian, Hebrew and Julian dates. It records the GPS locations of gravestones to make them easy to find and volunteers can easily see which areas of any cemetery remain undocumented, to maximize efficiency and avoid duplication. The gravestone photographs are then transcribed by volunteers on the BillionGraves website, resulting in searchable digital data.

The easy to use BillionGraves app (Click to zoom)

In just two years, BillionGraves has already amassed millions of headstone records, uploaded by 70,000 volunteers.

A gravestone picture collected through the BillionGraves application (Click to zoom).

Starting immediately, we’ll be reaching out to the users of MyHeritage and encouraging them to join us in using BillionGraves to preserve and document gravestones worldwide - for future generations. The records will be available forfree on BillionGraves’ website, and MyHeritage's search engine for historical records, SuperSearch. Each record will contain photographs of the gravestone, GPS coordinates, and an index of corresponding information.

A mapped out gravestone record on the BillionGraves application (Click to zoom).

MyHeritage Record Matching technology will be unleashed on the new records and users will automatically receive notifications of any new cemetery records that match individuals in their family tree. Users can save new cemetery records and extract relevant information directly to their family tree, helping them discover vital details about relatives and find out more about their ancestors.

This global initiative is a great way for MyHeritage users to contribute to the future of family history research, and to help preserve their own family legacies, as well as the legacies of others. Through our partnership with BillionGraves, MyHeritage continues to add additional digitized global content, providing enormous value to millions of users.

We'll be posting more details soon about how you can participate in this global mission and help preserve the information today, for the generations to come.

The MyHeritage team

MyHeritage and BillionGraves team up and launch international App

The following is from BillionGraves. I just posted the press release from MyHeritage on this, but they read slightly different, so I am sharing both. 

Groundbreaking multilingual mobile app will power international crowd-sourcing initiative

We are pleased to announce a new collaboration with MyHeritage to digitally preserve the world’s cemeteries.

In this collaboration, MyHeritage calls upon its tens of millions of users along with millions of other family history enthusiasts around the world to work with BillionGraves to digitally preserve cemeteries around the world and capture their GPS locations. 

BillionGraves and MyHeritage will work together to make the BillionGraves website and application available in 25 languages.  Along with other features, the BillionGraves app and website will also support Gregorian, Hebrew and Julian dates. The addition of these features makes the BillionGraves app the first of its kind to be made available to the entire world. 

The BillionGraves content is available for free on MyHeritage SuperSearch. In addition, MyHeritage is matching it for free to its 27 million family trees on MyHeritage and Geni.

Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage said

“

“We’re thrilled to embark on this global initiative with BillionGraves. Gravestones are among the most valuable information sources for family history research, and although there are many thousands of cemeteries worldwide, most of them have never been documented, and their information is not available online.  Time is chipping away at the gravestones and many are becoming unreadable over the years so it’s up to our generation to preserve them.”

Hudson Gunn, President of BillionGraves said

“

“We’re delighted to work with MyHeritage on digitizing the world’s cemeteries. At BillionGraves we are working to provide a comprehensive family history database for records and images from the world’s cemeteries—but it’s not something we can do alone. With MyHeritage’s support in mobilizing its massive user community and working with us to launch in 25 languages, we’ll be able to provide incredible value for millions of families and preserve this valuable data for generations to come.”

For more details about this partnership,  read the official press release on Business Wire or visit the MyHeritage Blog.

MyHeritage and BillionGraves team up to digitally preserve the world's cemeteries

The following is from MyHeritage.



MyHeritage and BillionGraves team up to digitally preserve the world's cemeteries

Groundbreaking multilingual mobile app will power international crowdsourcing initiative

TEL AVIV, Israel & LEHI & KAYSVILLE, Utah – Wednesday 19 February, 2014 - MyHeritage, the popular online family history network, has partnered with BillionGraves to launch a global crowdsourcing initiative to preserve the world’s cemeteries.

BillionGraves is a free iOS and Android application that lets users easily photograph and document gravestones, providing an important source of information for people intrigued about their ancestors and family history. Using patent-pending technology, BillionGraves is the only mobile application of its kind. With the help of MyHeritage, the app will be available in 25 languages, and will support Gregorian, Hebrew and Julian dates. It records the GPS locations of gravestones to make them easy to find and volunteers can easily see which areas of any cemetery remain undocumented, to maximize efficiency and avoid duplication. The gravestone photographs are then transcribed by volunteers on the BillionGraves website, resulting in searchable digital data.

With a community of tens of millions of family history enthusiasts all around the world, MyHeritage brings a vast global volunteer base for collecting and transcribing gravestone photos using the BillionGraves application.

All records collected are made available for free on the BillionGraves and MyHeritage websites. The partnership with BillionGraves brings major benefits for families using MyHeritage to explore their past, as all users will receive free Record Matches – alerts about gravestone records that have been automatically matched to their ancestors, making it easy to make new discoveries. In addition to the photographs and GPS coordinates of the gravestones, an index of corresponding information, such as dates of birth and death, close family relatives and epitaphs, is made available to search for free on MyHeritage's search engine for historical records, SuperSearch.

“We’re thrilled to embark on this global initiative with BillionGraves", said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “Gravestones are among the most valuable information sources for family history research, and although there are many thousands of cemeteries worldwide, most of them have never been documented, and their information is not available online.  Time is chipping away at the gravestones and many are becoming unreadable over the years, so it’s up to our generation to preserve them.”

“We’re delighted to work with MyHeritage on digitizing the world’s cemeteries”, said Hudson Gunn, President of BillionGraves. “At BillionGraves we are working to provide a comprehensive family history database for records and images from the world’s cemeteries—but it’s not something we can do alone. With MyHeritage’s support in mobilizing its massive user community and working with us to launch in 25 languages, we’ll be able to provide incredible value for millions of families and preserve this valuable data for generations to come.”

Over the coming weeks, MyHeritage users will receive documentation about the project and will be able to download the application via a special website designed for this project.

About MyHeritage

MyHeritage is a family history network helping millions of families around the world discover and share their legacy online. As technology thought leaders and innovators, MyHeritage is transforming family history into an activity that’s more accessible, exciting, and easier than ever before. MyHeritage empowers its global community of users with social crowdsourcing tools, a massive library of historical content, and powerful search and matching technologies. The service is available in 40 languages. For more information, visit www.myheritage.com.

About BillionGraves

With more than 7 million headstone records created by 70,000 volunteers in just two years, BillionGraves is the trusted resource for accurate GPS gravestone and burial record data on the web. BillionGraves’ mobile GPS tracking technology in its mobile application perpetuates this progress, bringing a wealth of genealogical information right to your fingertips.

Disclaimer: BillionGraves has not been acquired by MyHeritage and is still owned and operated by Otter Creek Holdings. BillionGraves has been and will continue to be a FREE resource for all.

BillionGraves and FamilySearch Connect

The following is from the FamilySearch Blog.

BillionGraves has recently added a new feature to their website called FamilySearch Connect. This feature allows anyone to take an image found on the BillionGraves website and attach it to the Source Box of the person’s corresponding FamilySearch record. This is one more example of two organizations working together to simply the process of identifying and documenting individuals. Click on this link to learn more about this new feature from BillionGraves

UGA - Free Virtual Chapter Meeting

The following is from the Utah Genealogical Association.

UGA Virtual Chapter presents Tim Cross - FamilySearch and Billion Graves

Billion Graves provides the standard for how source records will be integrated into FamilySearch going forward. The understanding of where an ancestor is buried has new meaning. Visiting the cemetery will never be the same again.

iPhone and Android phones do more than just enable you to text and talk: with GPS capabilities and fully functional cameras, these popular devices can also help your family history. One way to do it is through a program called BillionGraves, which uses technology innovations to help researchers find and map the overwhelmingly useful information on cemetery headstones. This tool helps the genealogical community document the names and locations of every headstone with photos. All the information is available online, for free, so if you can't visit to a distant cemetery, you can still find everything you need in one place.

Tim Cross has worked as a Product Manager for the new FamilySearch for 7 years. Prior to working for the Church, Tim worked in the computer industry for PriceWaterhouse, Booz, Allen & Hamiltion, and Novell. Tim is currently responsible for integrating all the FamilySearch components into www.familysearch.org and linking source records into the Family Tree (new FamilySearch).

November 17, 2011, 7:00 pm MT @

virtual.ugagenealogy.org

The UGA Virtual Chapter meets online on the third Thursday of each month except December. These meetings are free to the public. To attend the presentation, go to virtual.ugagenealogy.org and, on the date and at the time of the meeting, click on the UGA logo. Enter the presentation as a guest. Archived copies of our monthly meetings are available to UGA members only. UGA Membership is only $35.00 per year. To join UGA, visit our website at ugagenealogy.org. Look down the blue panel and select the option to "Join UGA!" Follow the prompts.

BillionGraves.com Launches to Preserve Family History on Memorial Day

The following is from BillionGraves.com

PROVO, Utah – May 26, 2011 – Memorial Day is coming soon, and AppTime (http://www.apptime.com), the group behind the family history app MobileTree (http://www.mobiletree.me), has a new project they’re thrilled to share. It’s calledBillionGraves.com, it’s as ambitious a project as the word “billion” makes it sound, and they want you to take it with you to the cemetery this Memorial Day.

“It’s a huge opportunity for everyone in family history,” says Rob Moncur, the head developer for the BillionGraves.com website. “We want people from all over the world to be able work together and pool resources so everyone can find the ancestors they’re looking for.”

BillionGraves.com aims to be the largest repository of headstone records, images, and locations in the world. This will give family historians access to previously undocumented information that can further their genealogical research. The site is built with these researchers in mind, and its structure is inherently collaborative. The first step in the BillionGraves process is to have iPhone users download the BillionGraves camera app and take it with them to local cemeteries—hopefully at times when they would already be going, like on Memorial Day. Those people snap quick pictures of the cemetery’s headstones, and the app uploads the photos to BillionGraves.com. The photos are tagged using the iPhone’s location services so the exact location of each grave is recorded.

Once the photos are on BillionGraves.com, anyone with a BillionGraves account—whether they have an iPhone or not—can transcribe the records on the headstones and make them easily searchable. Then anyone can search for their ancestors and find not only the information recorded on headstones, but also see the headstones and the exact locations of ancestors’ final resting places. Those records, formerly undocumented and hard to access, open up to family historians worldwide.

“This is something anyone in the world can access and participate in,” says Curtis Tirrell, AppTime’s CEO. “Everyone has unique access to their local cemeteries. You have access to someone’s ancestor, access they may not be able to get alone. We’re creating a way for everyone to help other family history researchers and remove problems of distance.”

The BillionGraves crew is excited about the prospects for BillionGraves.com, but they all know that they need the family history community to back them in their endeavor.

“We don’t know where all the cemeteries in the world are,” says Moncur. “There are cemeteries that aren’t plotted on any maps, and we can’t go out and find those. But people know where they are. All those people need to do is let us know and snap as many pictures as they can. We want to make that process simple and easy, which is why we’re releasing the app and launching the website right before Memorial Day. Lots of people will be going to cemeteries anyway. We just want them to do a little something extra while they’re telling stories about great-grandpa, and that extra will help people all over the place.”

To learn more about the BillionGraves.com project and what you can do to help, visit http://BillionGraves.com orhttp://billiongraves.blogspot.com (the project’s blog) and, if you have an iPhone, download the BillionGraves Camera app. The app is free May 25-June 1. After that it will cost $1.99 to ensure only responsible users download it.


(BTW, there is a Droid version is in the works, just not by this weekend.)