The Our Digital Ancestors team has just returned from an exciting trip to Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne to look at some of the great work that’s taking place there. First up was Durham University, where we gave a talk to undergraduates on the Cemeteries and Communities course about our work. The students will be taking the Health and Safety part of our online training course and we look forward to hearing about their work at nearby St Oswald’s. Thanks go to Dr Cathie Draycott and her colleagues, who were great hosts for the day. 

The team then moved on to Newcastle, where we visited St John’s Cemetery and Stories of the Stones, a project uncovering some of the histories of those buried at the cemetery and creating poems and artwork based on these. The range of activities was fantastic and we hope to use some of their ideas in ODA, so watch this space! We wish the project all the best in its main aim of restoring the cemetery chapels and lodges and giving them a sustainable future.

Our final stop was the University of Newcastle, where we attended a round up of the Ballast Hills Burial Ground Project. Led by Dr Myra Giesen, this community project records, researches and showcases a cemetery where working class poor were buried alongside nonconformists. Whilst the cemetery was largely cleared in the early 20^th century, the cemetery’s records survive along with a transcription of the memorial present prior to the clearance. The diversity of approaches being taken to the cemetery, including transcribing memorial transcriptions, researching those buried there and investigating associated records including midwife certificates for still births, was inspiring and we hope to work with Myra on a future project.