An experiment in collaborative genealogy

The Okopowa St. Project is an effort intended to improve the ability of genealogists to collect and organize information from cemeteries, using modern technology and crowd-sourcing. The goal is to develop best-practices based on the experience of volunteers, and determine which tools and technologies can help us to photograph gravestones, transcribe their information, map cemeteries, and locate gravestones. If necessary we will develop new tools to improve our ability to collect the information we want from cemeteries.

The first phase of this project was planned for and carried out during the 2018 IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Warsaw, where the very large Okopowa St. Cemetery with over 80,000 gravestones is located, and is where the name of this project originates. The project is not, and has not ever, intended to only cover this cemetery. As we continue we will be working to use these technologies and techniques in cemeteries around the world.

I’ve moved the original project plan from this page to the first article that announced this project, An experiment in collaborative genealogy. This will maintain the original ideas for future reference, and allow this page to continue to point to all the articles on this project, and point to other resources that may be helpful.

Articles about this project (most recent at top):

Learning from Okopawa St.

Practical suggestions when photographing cemeteries

Get ready to photograph – The Okopowa St. Project begins

Okopowa St. Cemetery Maps and Statistics

The challenges of online cemetery research

An experiment in collaborative genealogy