It is definitely Spring where I live and I hope where you are, too.
The daffodils are out and the tulips are beginning to open, bringing
an abundant display of color, beauty, and renewal.

Spring flowers remind me that soon we will be able to visit
cemeteries to photograph the gravestones or copy their inscriptions.
I would like to remind all of you of the ambitious project to record
all Jewish burials in the JEWISHGEN ONLINE WORLDWIDE BURIAL REGISTRY
( JOWBR). See the project description at
<http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/>. Instructions on how
to submit data, the Excel template, and donor forms are all at this
site.

Please consider "adopting" a cemetery and recording all the
gravestones in the cemetery or in the landsmanschaft plot. Do let us
know as soon as possible the cemetery that you plan to index so that
we can tell you whether it has been done or is being done by another
person or group. We are also asking for volunteer coordinators for
large cities, states, and countries outside the United States.
Contact Harriet Brown, Administrative Coordinator for the project, at
<hnbrown@...> if you want to volunteer.

Remember that this project intends to collect burial data >from
cemeteries worldwide. Therefore, it is important to get projects
started in every country in which Jews resided and died. Another
reminder: we can accept data only >from entire cemeteries or special
plots; we are not set up to accept data >from individual families.

We frequently see messages about cemeteries requiring restoration and
requests for financial assistance to accomplish that goal. Because
JewishGen is a 501 (c)(3) organization operating under clearly
defined guidelines, we cannot support those efforts. However, if
the goal is to document the information found on all tombstones in a
cemetery and to contribute this data toJOWBR and the only way to
photograph and/or read the inscriptions is by cleaning the debris and
the plants that have grown up hiding the stones, then the clean-up
portion of the restoration expense could be covered.

We already have JOWBR projects underway in eastern and central
European cemeteries operating through our SIGs and raising the
necessary funds through their JewishGen-erosity pages. Those
projects can, if necessary, cover the costs of brush cutting,
cleaning stones and in some cases setting the stones upright because
the end goal is to record all the information and make it available
to the JOWBR database. It should be understood that restoration
costs need to be approved in advance by JewishGen to assure that the
major expenses in each project are for data collection. Ongoing
maintenance, however, will need to be funded outside of JewishGen's
fundraising capabilities.

We expect the JOWBR database to be online this summer. It would be
wonderful to have your ancestral data in the initial database.

Best wishes,

Joyce Field
JewishGen VP, Research
jfield@...