I am also sad about yoursite closing down ,I have really enjoyed just seeing all the different grave sites here in South Australia.I also have not purchased anything,only because all my rellies are in NSW graves:-( But I have found my MIL grave once over here but no pictures of it on your site.Many thanks from me also for your hard work and time given to this.
Anne

I am sorry that you have been harrassed out of business. I too was going to purchase from you today. Being interstate it would have been so convenient. Another one bites the dust as they say.

I have only just learnt that you existed, I live in Victoria and therefore cannot travel to South Australia. I am devastated that you have been forced to close your site, I cannot believe that you have been harrassed, it is unforgiveable that people are able to do that to you. Without people like you we find it difficult to find out loved ones. I was intending to buy some CD's from you but feel lost now that I cannot. Please from me thank you for what you have done and what you would have done to help us. Please take care and find happiness in your future.

Diane

Don't you think that's for individual families to decide??

Great site i have been looking for a site like this for years found at last my only uncle is buried in SYDNEY WAR CEMETERY Grave 3A B16 DIED 9th june 1946 We only found this out recently can i purchase a copy of his grave as i live in Scotland and will never be able to come to Sydney to do this myself i am age 72 years old yours most gratefully JAMES FLEETHAM PAGE

I do not know how to begin to thank you. I never thought that I would ever see my uncle Robert's grave. I was only 2 years old when he went away to join the Royal Marines, my mother his only sister died when I was 8 years old - they were the only 2 in the family. My mother always spoke of her only brother in the Marines. At last due to you, you have made 1 old scotsman a very happy man. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for somthing that I thought I would never see. I remain in your debt. JAMES FLEETHAM PAGE

Hi Faithe
I am sorry to hear the sad news about your website and great work you have done. I know I appreciate your work and the time it saves family history researchers. Our club Fleurieu Peninsula Family History Group appreciate your support. Family History groups all over the world photo and produce cds of cemeteries you saved us a lot of work. I would not let them win. regards Lynn Dillon Secretary FPFHG

I will try to be polite but it makes me so angry to think of what they have done to you. Payneham cemetery is a prime example of why you should be allowed to continue this vital work. for those who don't know all of the graves are being resumed when the leases expire and are being replace by new ones. I have a lot of relatives in Payneham cemetery as I grew up there and all this history is disappearing. Thankyou for what you have done.
Bill, Waitpinga.

i think it is a total disgrave what people are doing to you, i have purchased many cds and photos from you. thanks to you i have saved alot of time and effort treking the country side. as i am in Queensland and majority of my family is in South Australia, you have been a wonderful asset to me.
I think the negative people should go find something more worth while to whinge about.
You have done a fantastic job of this website and you should be very PROUD of what you have done.

Hi Faithe,
How ridiculous it is that people are making a hooha about your work. Your work is of great value to those of us who cannot travel to the cemetery concerned. The relative cost is great. It is also very sad that this has caused you to close down and affected your income! I purchased a DVD for Kapunda and was coming back to buy more!!
A cemetery is a public place where headstones are available for public view. It is no different from looking up births, deaths and marriages indexes and dowloading certificates as you can in Victoria, or taking photos of houses as does Google maps! There are a number of sites where headstone photos are available on the web for free or for a donation and we don't hear of complaints about them. There must be some very warped people in the world if they can find anything to complain about in your work. I suggest you consult a lawyer and protect yourself from these cranks. I do hope you can turn this around. Good luck for the future. Robyn

Hi Faithe,
So sad to hear of the closure of your service. I have used it in the past and was about do so again. It's difficult to understand how people could raise objections to a site such as yours but such is the way of our 'politically correct' world.
Thank you so much for what you have done.
Bob.

Are all of these from a certain country or all over the world? It would be good to use the map I'd found on one of them or put Cemetery address in full please.

Hello Faithe,
I am so sorry to hear of the problems you have had. I have ordered a CD and several individual photos in the past and have found you service to be very helpful. We can't all get to the cemeteries when we would like and your service has been very helpful to me. I am sure there will be more headstone locations I will discover in the future and will probably never have photos of them because of this.

Best wishes for the future,
Janet Thomas

Please keep your site open. Its been so helpful and you have helped with photo's . Cheers Kerry :)

Faithe I was stunned to read of your decision. I haven't purchased any CD's as my ancestry is not in South Australia however I refer others to and use your website frequently. I am active on a family history website where members freely help people with their family research.
Link to a thread about your decision.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,528622.0.html

My responses to your queries.

Is a cemetery a public place? I consider it to be.

If a cemetery does not have a photographic policy in place and visible at the cemetery - should you be able to photograph headstones? Yes

Does a cemetery's regulations prohibit photography? I would ask to see the evidence and how long this regulation has been in force and why the trust/organization considered the prohibition necessary.

Does a death or funeral notice in a newspaper provide more personal information about a deceased family than a single name on this website? YES and has certainly helped me when trying to locate living people for others. A single name on a website reveals nil other than this person has a MI in a particular cemetery.

If privacy is an issue with family members, why erect a headstone with the information on it in a publicly accessible cemetery for people to view? Why indeed.

I wish you well in your new project and note your ongoing kindness to others :)

Cassie Kelly

Thanks to you and all persons with the same dedication - you have made my family research that much easier and also have saved me hundreds of dollars. If this family history and information was not uploaded onto the net, I wouldn't even bother as the cost would be beyond my reach. As with every website I have gone into regarding headstone photographs, I have always been impressed with the respect shown towards both dead and living. Hopefully attitudes change and best wishes to you.

What a wonderful website you have.
I'm sorry I only discovered you this afternoon,too late apparently to purchase a CD, but not too late to find your website of benifit.

I would like to respond to some of your queries.
Is a cemetery a public place?
In my opinion it certainly is.

If a cemetery does not have a visible photographic policy in place I would feel free to take photos of headstones.

There is definitely much more personal information in a death and/or funeral notice than a single name on a website.

Personally, I am happy for people to look at,read and photograph if they wish, my parents headstones. I'm proud of my family and have no wish to hide them from strangers and I'm sure many others feel or would have felt, the same way.

If a mean minded minority of people are able to bring about the beginning of the end of genealogy research - how sad that would be.

I hope many of us (like me) who are just beginning to discover the joy and frustration, of family history research, are able to help hold back the not so silent or considerate mean minded minority.

Thank you for your wonderful website and I do hope you are able to maintain it. I will certainly continue to log onto your site.

May your future hold pleasant surprises and unexpected rewards.

Elaine.

Hi Faithe,
Crazy world. Just had a look at your website and saw your message.
I have purchased a few photos for our family history on my Mothers side-now in her 80's She was overjoyed to see actual heasdstone photos of direct relatives.
Your service was invaluable to me. It has been great and provided pleasure and completeness.
Just calculate the greenhouse gas it saved me (and so many otehers) in air travel and car travel.
This pressure on you is madness.
Will they attack "Trove" next for alowing the public to read old papers, uncover history and the past.
Please stick with it.
Garner support via politicians, media, sociial media etc.

I will ring my Federal member about this. Who is your local SA and Federal member.

Hi All, I was astounded and surprised to see 2 pictures of a single grave at Morgan, the grave is my Great Great Grandfather's. I am in my 60s now and can remember my Grandfather telling me that Daniel Macfarlane,his Grandfather was interred under the Morgan Football Oval which was the old Morgan Cemetary, just the grave surround was moved to where it is today to make way for the football oval, so, somewhere under Morgan football oval is Daniel Macfarlane who is probably cheering Morgan football team on from below them.His wifes name was Susan Macfarlane Nee McKie/Mckee.

Hi Faithe, Unbelievable!! So what's next? I go to a public cemetery and want to take a picture of a relatives headstone for a keepsake. Am I going to face 20 questions and be harassed by some sort of cemetery police in future! What on earth is wrong with some people. Fantastic job, by the way, with your World War 1 photos website.
Deb.

1. Privacy – There is more family information provided in Public Notices – Deaths & Funeral Notices. All can be obtained from any public library, genealogical society, Online papers (TROVE), so what’s the hassle? Why erect a headstone at all if privacy was going to be a issue.

2. Many other online sites provide the same service (some are in S.A.). Why are you having such problems? Are these other sites experiencing similar problems?

3. Many Cemeteries themselves provide on-line headstone photos – why, if there is such a privacy problem? Or is it the fact that those cemeteries that do not provide this service feel threatened?

4. Cemeteries and headstones are in the “Public Domain”. What so different about a photo of the cemetery or headstone?

5. The Internet is not going away, just because some-one, or a group of people don’t like the information being provided.

6. Disrespect? Families should be grateful that history is being preserved. Look at what happened at West Terrace a while ago – Vandalism is not going to go away, and having a photo at least preserves history. What would these objectors say if their mother’s headstone was destroyed and there was no record of it?

I am a volunteer with two sites.
I provide photographs of monumentation for 70 cemeteries. I hold 14,000 photographs.
Does this mean I too will be harasses, sued etc etc.
I have photographs of monuments which no longer exist or have reached the stage that you cannot read them.
Are you being pushed out of business by jealousy?

I am new to this "family tree research", but was surprised to find such a delightful website with some much FREE information. Many sites charge money. I live interstate, and we have been very grateful if my descendents were buried in any of the cemeteries. As l haven't finished my family research, l might have family buried anywhere. I have started photographing many headstones in my area to attach to my family tree. We go to a cemetery and just spend the day photographing that cemetery. One day someone might what a photograph from there. We have met many interesting people in our travels with great stories. We have found it a very fascinating interest and wish we could do it full time.
I am saddened to hear about the negativity you encounter on your travels.
There needs to be many more people like yourself to do this work, who don't whinge and bitch because "they've had a bad day", but do it because you love what you are doing, and have pride in it.Gravestones are history, and history that needs to be preserved.
Hope you can walk around around with pride in A JOB WELL DONE!

Hi Faithe
I find it hard that these people you write about can stop you from photographing headstones "PRIVACY" what privacy I thought privacy is behind closed doors,graves are not, they are in a public place where all sorts of people go,just like a park we take photos of parkes,beaches,streets etc.I live in Vic I'm one of many people who photographs cemeteries with a web site where I give out my photos no charge at all, I must say though I have brought a set of your SA dvds you do know how to charge for your work,maybe drop the price $50 a dvd is alot of money if you dont have it,maybe thats is the problem with the people behind the cemeteries trust they dont like you charging money,its taking money away from them or they dont like the idea of you making money from what you started out of love, then few years later turned into a money making business,you would be better off giving out photos free of charge,thats what you started out to do,then they dont have any thing on you.......they cant take any legal action against you then.

Julie

Hi again
I understand the cost that can add up,but I dont try or even think in the way of money,if your going to help people with finding love ones by going to cemeteries its a lovely way of helping with out adding your cost of a trip into it,when I visit family or friends or go on holidays, if I feel unto it, if I have the time, I then decide to go to a cemetery.
I dont pick cemeteries and expect to sell my photos/DVDs to pay for the trip.
Don’t you think you had enjoyable time going on these trips as well as going to cemeteries, as for hotel/motels cost, blown tyre here and there, how can you justify expecting other people to help pay back your cost in the way of selling photos/disc.
You did enjoy your time away from home had a holiday from the every day stuff.
Yes I know how long it takes to photograph a cemetery then to get home spend many long hours even months sitting at a computer typing them all up, I’ve just spent a good 6 months typing up one cemetery, its something I like doing to help people who cant make it to the cemeteries, but I do get annoyed when people ask for photos when they live in the area, that are to lazy to get of there butt go them selves.
I do it to help people in some way its paying back to help others,even though it may not be the people who have helped me over the years its helping someone out.
Your better of giving out photos then making up complete cemeteries disc, that way you have full control over your photos people only want a few photos from different cemeteries once they have the photos, the disc are only sitting there useless, so they get copied given out to friends or sold on eBay, could be why your sales have dropped.

I have enjoyed looking over your web site, and yes it will be a shame for you to have to close it down.
But don’t expect others to pay for it, if its something you enjoy, you will never get the support in that way. Words yes, money no.
As for your cost of books etc that is up to you, it a big outlay on books but you do get to keep the books.
Pictures in a book has copyrights on them, have you asked for permission…. :-)

All the best with the WW1 site I look forward to seeing more……

Ho just to let you know 95% of my research is in SA or WA and I live in Vic
Julie

So sorry to hear of the harrassment you have received on your site. I have only just stumbled across your site after having researched my family history for the past 12 months. Of course i've found a relative of mine on your North Rd Anglican Cemetery list. How easy and convenient it would have been to have been able to purchase the photo. Shame on all the haters of the site out there. Some people have nothing better to do with their time.

Faithe Iam sorry to hear of your woes though it doesn't suprise me there are plenty of narrow minded people in this world and when you add whingers to this as well as biggots we the free souls have a hard time ahead I am researching my wifes family and her name is Jones also her family lived in the Marryatville Kensington area Even when your related to someone you get told the privacy act prevents you from obtaining information even though these people are dead and have been for years What a lot of crock never mind I wish you good luck and thanks for the info you have already provided Rob

Dear Faith -

I have been doing similar work as yourself in Victoria for a major cemetery you'll see the Cemetery in question if you visit the website).

My views are that it is unrealistic for people to expect things for free where time and expense is involved. Many are happy to make a donation. I ask for a donation (any amount) where a person seeks a photo and should they not wish to donate, I don't provide a photo. EVERY single penny I have received has been donated to not-for-profit groups and I have NEVER gained financially though I pay for travel etc. That's my choice, like it is yours to charge. So in effect the work I am doing is for the benefit of other groups.

If some volunteers wish to undertake such a service etc for free, that's their choice. They should be praised endlessly.

Name a Cemetery Trust who have taken photos of the graves from their cemetery OR are willing to do so for the public for free? You'd be hard pressed to name one. That's why the work of volunteers like you is invaluable.

I urge you to seek advice before we lose a valuable service. I am positively certain that you are not doing anything legally wrong. I've never had any issues and the Cemetery in question are aware what I am doing.

Are the threats real and in writing from cemetery trusts and their legal representative? Or just hollowed threats from Hysterical Societies and the like?

Gravesite photos are in the public and infringe no copyright. Nothing on the headstone infringes copyright, which only applies to the living. (I have spoken to a former CEO of a major Melbourne cemetery and he confirmed likewise).

Feel free to contact me using the email address provided.

(I came across your website as I am looking for a person possibly buried at Bathurst NSW and noticed the hassles you are receiving).

I am very sad to learn that this site will close. Are they themselves on the bandwagon to earn their own money on cashing in on this?

After all the hours and money you have put into providing a wonderful service, you deserve better. I hope by 2014 you still remain amougst us.
thankyou for providing us great research material.
Susan

Hello as much as I too love walking through and photographing graves and cemetaries, and see the value in preserving all cemetaries I just want to let you know I believe you should not be making money from selling disks with this information on it. There is a plaque at the Whyalla Cemetary with my sons name on it however I did not authorise this plaque that was the intention of my ex husband. My Sons ashes have not been interred, My sons ashes will NEVER be interred in any cemetary I believe if the remains have been interred at a particular cemetary then by all means include that, for those which have not been interred there is normally a very good reason why. JMO

love to help out with a strathalbyn list for you. I started messing with it a while back, names/photos. I think this is a wonderful idea, as one of your comments said earlier, we take photos during our life cycle, why not our resting place. Especially with things being damaged etc. Dont give in.

Hi Faithe,
I've only just seen your homepage message today and am aghast. I can't believe people have given you a hard time. I have purchased a number of photos from you previously and consider them a bargain compared the the considerable effort I would have to go to in order to get to some of the places. I am certain I would have purchased again in the future. I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask people to make a contribution. You don't walk into a shop or go to your accountant and expect to get things for free! I'm sure some of this page's readers may be interesting in reading more on that very argument: http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-free/
I can't believe some people have complained on the grounds of privacy. Honestly, it's a photo of a public marker in a public place!

Centennial Park General D- ben levő Fazekas Erzsébet&András sírhelyéről amennyiben tudna nekem küldeni valaki egy képet nagyon megköszönném.
Centennial Park General D- ben being Fazekas Erzsébet&from András graveside in as much somebody would be able to send a picture to me very much I would say thanks for it.

This is a great site. I would assume it would help with family studies. The service was very efficient and very reasonable rates. Thank you

This is a great site.Thanks for you sharing.