Travelling the World by Digitizing Cemeteries

As part of our global initiative to digitize cemeteries, MyHeritage was contacted by a couple with an interesting idea that allowed them to embark on an international adventure.

Michael Kerr and his wife, Sabrina Rowe, decided to leave the comfort of their home, and bicycle across Europe, stopping to photograph entire cemeteries on the way.  All the photos are being shared with the community for free on MyHeritage and BillionGraves.com.

Michael digitizes graves in Mirogoj cemetery (Zagreb, Croatia). The beautiful Mirogoj is listed as one of the “Significant Cemeteries” of Europe. It is unique in that it has long been multi-denominational and has beautiful grounds surrounded with long arcades with arches, columns and cupolas.

Michael and Sabrina have always wanted to travel, but they craved a deeper experience than just a short vacation that they were normally able to take once a year.

The couple tried for years to no longer be dependent on their location for work. They even worked on developing a remote team software for companies to let their employees work from home and still maintain optimum communication. They were fortunate to finally find freelance work in IT and social media work with a Canadian company that operates virtually.

In May 2011, they packed up and stored the contents of their Montreal apartment, and embarked on their journey. They planned to travel by bike to improve their fitness, and to enable them to see beautiful surroundings more easily.

Despite their rigorous training before they left, the beginning was tough.

As anyone who embarks on a cycle tour will tell you, the training really happens those first few weeks on the tour. After years of sitting for work, those first weeks really taught us what we were missing – we hurt everywhere, all the time! Despite that, the rewards were overwhelming right away.

Michael on the famous 101 highway on the California coast on the first leg of a 12,000 km bike journey.

They began in the west of Canada, through the national parks in the Rocky Mountains, and made their way to Vancouver, British Columbia. They then headed south into the United States, where they followed the cyclist’s dream route 101 into San Francisco, California.

That first summer and fall were very difficult, and the combination of working three days per week, and riding 10 hours per day the other days, and being a tourist all at the same time took a lot of careful planning. It was also a glorious experience, being immersed completely in nature four days per week, being so close to unbelievable places and the kind of scenery we dream about.

The next spring the couple flew to Dublin and since then have visited Western, Central and Eastern Europe, including a winter in Morocco.

Sabrina cruises along the coast in Santa Cruz, California.

Sabrina has always found cemeteries to be fascinating places because of the history and perspectives on religion, art, and family and social connections they display. In university she wrote a grant proposal for a project to study and photograph rural graveyards, looking for the clues they offer on social cohesion within the communities they service.

When Michael and Sabrina started their bicycle tour, they began to stop at cemeteries that they came across because of the peacefulness they offer and their historical aspect, and the couple loved photographing them. Cemeteries also tell a lot about people and places so they are a fascinating way to learn about a new location, a great component of travel.

Last spring we were in Romania waiting for riding weather to begin, when I read the MyHeritage newsletter about the initiative with Billion Graves and MyHeritage to digitize every grave worldwide, and it was very exciting news. I thought: I was born to do that. It was a great match for both Michael and I, between our desire to travel, our love of graveyards, and our backgrounds in photography, technology and remote work. And, thanks to our bike touring, we are already adapted to being outside and active all day, and dealing with the weather on offer, whatever it may be.

Michael and Sabrina contacted MyHeritage and we contracted them to photograph cemeteries that they passed on their journeys.

Graves at Mirogoj (Zagreb, Croatia) are some of the most interesting Sabrina has ever seen

Digitizing graves allows us to explore graveyards while evolving our travel to accommodate a more in-depth experience of the places we explore. And it also allows us to take part in what we see as a very meaningful activity – creating a visual and spatial record of every grave, to connect people in the present, and to protect for posterity.

According to Michael and Sabrina:

When you travel through places by bike you are not once-removed as you are in a car, or several-times-removed as you are if you fly in and stay in tourist areas. It’s real, and intimate, and you have no choice but to deal with the challenges you face immediately, be they bears, dangerous road conditions, gale force winds, water rationing while climbing mountains – all of which we experienced.

We are enjoying travelling too much to give it up! To date we’ve traveled through 28 countries, and we’re just getting started.

Interested in photographing graves for us around the world? Write to us at cemeteryteam@myheritage.com.