The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery officially retired on July 31, 2017. Its owner and webmaster, Murray Pletsch, made the decision to step back from the project and remove his website from the internet.
While the website itself is no longer active, Murray generously chose CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project as the new home for the 1.3 million photographs he had collected over the years.
Important Notes:
- We did not take over or remove the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery website.
- We are incorporating the photographs into our existing project as they are indexed.
- With Murray’s permission, we now manage the domain: https://gravemarkers.ca
Our dedicated volunteers have been working hard to index the transferred photographs:
Even as we complete the integration of the Gravemarker Gallery photos, CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project continues its usual work. Volunteers are actively:
- Contributing thousands of new cemetery photographs
- Indexing submissions—both new and from the Gravemarker Gallery
We know the wait to see a specific cemetery’s photos online can be frustrating. Please rest assured that our volunteers are working diligently to index and publish everything as quickly as possible.
⏳ Can we provide a timeline for the inclusion of a specific cemetery?
Unfortunately, no—we cannot give exact estimates. But if you’d like to help speed things up, we welcome new indexing volunteers!
🍁 About CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project
Founded in 2004, our project:
- Hosts a directory of over 20,000 cemeteries across Canada
- Includes a name index of more than 2.6 million individuals
- Is 100% volunteer-run and 100% Canadian
We’re proud to carry on this work, including the legacy of the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery.
Learn more:
– About CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project
– CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project Update Blog (every week we announce what’s been added)
– CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project Facebook page (we announce updates here too!)
– Our announcement of the retirement of the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery (31 Jul 2017)
– Murray’s Goodbye Message (Jun 2017)
– Murray’s Newsletter Retirement Announcement (Dec 2016)
– Our announcement of the impending retirement of the Canadian Gravemaker Gallery (3 Dec 2016)
In June 2017 this message was posted to the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery:
Over the past 20 years, the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery has worked with volunteers coast-to-coast to photograph Canada’s cemeteries. It has been a rewarding experience but now it’s time for this webmaster to retire.
Last year, CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project agreed to incorporate the Gravemarker Gallery into their project (view the announcement).
The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery photographs continue to be processed/indexed. If any of your searches bring up zero results at the CanadaGenWeb site, likely the target cemetery has yet to be indexed. None of the almost 2 million plus photographs have been lost or missed.
Recommend you be patient and check back at the CanadaGenWeb site every month or so (you can subscribe to their update blog or like their Facebook page to be notified of updates).
Starting 30 Jul 2017, http://gravemarkers.ca will redirect you to CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project.
The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery will formally retire 31 Jul 2017, so please update your bookmarks to http://gravemarkers.ca or http://cemetery.canadagenweb.org.
The Northern Ontario Nostalgia site can still be enjoyed here
With thanks to everyone who has supported The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery.
Sincerely,
Murray Pletsch
In Dec 2016, Murray Pletsch sent out this newsletter to his subscribers:
OBJECTIVES
The Objective of this *Newsletter* has been to publish changes and bulletins to The *Canadian Gravemarker Gallery* website.
BULLETIN
In our 17th year of operation, The Webmaster, Murray Pletsch has decided to retire. Firstly, Murray wishes to thank all the kind and thoughtful supporters and volunteers who rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to make the website a valuable genealogical resource. We salute them all….!
WHAT’S NEXT
1. The Owner (Sherri Pettit) of the *CanadaGenWeb* website has agreed to incorporate the photos from The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery website into their website.
2. The merging of these two free access websites will take several months to complete.
3. In the meantime, until mid summer 2017, The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery will continue online to welcome visitors. PLEASE NOTE that this version of the website will NOT be updated, to avoid confusion and possible duplication between the two websites while the merging of the two websites continues.
4. Lastly, please understand that this will be a massive job to re-index the 1,600 cemeteries from The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery. We reiterate that both websites are “Free Access” entities and no doubt their team will be going flat out to complete the move. We understand the main site at CanadaGenWeb will post their progress reports every now and then.
Who knows, but someday, this too, will be remembered with pleasure. (An Interpretation of the Aeneid by Wendell Clausen)
It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of Murray Pletsch.
- Manitoba & Ontario update
- Manitoba, Nova Scotia & Ontario update
- Ontario Update
- Thank you volunteers!
- Manitoba & Ontario Update
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