Iowa Gravestone Photo Project History
The "Gravestone Photo Project" or "GPP" was first undertaken as a
single county gravestone photo archive. Originating as an IAGenWeb Special Project in January 2003,
it has grown to include separate repositories in over a dozen states -- and is now believed to be the largest gravestone photo repository in the world.
Project Roots
The project first began when Rich Lowe, an Iowa GenWeb Project county coordinator, wanted to store his Van Buren County Iowa GenWeb cemetery photos in
a searchable database.
Since there was no known existing software that allowed Rich to have the functionality needed . . he contacted his son Jeff Lowe (a website programmer)
to see what kind of effort would be needed to create a tool that would not only store the images but also be designed with an easy-to-use upload
interface that site visitors could use to contribute gravestone photos of their ancestors.
Before long a working model emerged. It soon became evident that the tool was capable of storing tens of thousands of records rather than the hundreds
of records originally planned -- and that with further modification it could be useful to other county coordinators statewide with it's combined
database being available for individual county or statewide searches.
It was at this point that the project was proposed and quickly offered to and adopted by IowaGenWeb as a Special Project.
Project Timeline
- July 2002 - Van Buren Co. Iowa site is conceptualized and work commences on the GPP software.
- January 2003 - IowaGravestones.org goes online
- September 2003 - ArizonaGravestones.org goes online
- April 2004 - ColoradoGravestones.org goes online
- November 2004 to March 2005 - An additional eight states begin using the software
- May 2005 - The "Gravestone Photo Project" software is established as an open-source project and the
programming code is placed in the public domain.
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