Dear
friends
I'm
delighted to share with you that MyHeritage has teamed up with BillionGraves to
launch a global initiative to digitally preserve the world's cemeteries.
As we know,
gravestones are very important for genealogy due to the rich information they
contain, such as names, dates and biographical details. But there are thousands
of cemeteries worldwide whose gravestones have never been documented nor has
their information been made available or searchable online.
In addition,
time is chipping away at the gravestones and many are becoming unreadable over
the years.
Over the next
few weeks, we’ll be working with our global community to preserve and document
gravestones worldwide, for future generations, using the BillionGraves
app. The app uses patent-pending technology to let users photograph and
document gravestones, and, with the help of MyHeritage, the app will be
available in 25 languages, and will support Gregorian, Hebrew and Julian
dates. The app also 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 records
will be available free on BillionGraves' website, and MyHeritage's
search engine for historical records, SuperSearch. MyHeritage's Record Matching
technologies will ensure that our users will receive notifications whenever a
gravestone matches their family tree.
Please
see the press release below.
If
you have any questions, please contact me, or my colleague, Aaron Godfrey (head
of public relations) at aaron@myheritage.com.
Best regards
Daniel
Horowitz
Chief Genealogist and Translation Manager
Phone: +972-3-6280047 | daniel@myheritage.com | www.myheritage.com
MyHeritage Ltd., 3 Ariel Sharon St.,
Terminal Park, Or Yehuda 60250, Israel
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.
Press Contact
Aaron Godfrey, PR Manager for
MyHeritage
Phone: US +1-347-329-5461 | UK
+44-208-816-7571
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.
