Digitisation of Central Otago district cemeteries is continuing, with Ranfurly Cemetery now completed and Roxburgh Cemetery now starting.

The digitisation of Central Otago District Council (CODC) cemeteries started some years ago, with the online database containing records for the Alexandra, Clyde, Omakau (Blacks), Nevis, Cromwell, Litany St (Cromwell) and Naseby cemeteries. 

Anyone can search the database for relatives and people of interest online. The service means some of the older records are not just paper versions, which future-proofs the valuable information.

In Ranfurly there was one unknown grave where the occupant could not be identified, which was uncommon, according to the cemetery team.

It means the record keeping was excellent from the time of the first burial on 27 October 1907 until the present day. 

The bulk of the work at Ranfurly was carried out by CODC cadet Jocelyn Ryan and it involved fact and grave checking. 

“It was a very satisfying project because it’s humane,” Jocelyn said. 

“I’m giving people a name since they no longer have a voice of their own.”

Jocelyn photographed every headstone. There are 700 occupied plots within the cemetery, 306 photos needed to be retaken.

Digitisation of Roxburgh Cemetery, which opened in 1860, is now underway. 

The records up to 1901 were lost in a fire many years ago.

For the 1901-1980 period records are tricky to decipher at times and the incomplete information sometimes supplied could also make identification difficult.

“We’re expecting this project to be a lot more challenging because of the age of the information and because the cemetery is a lot older,” Jocelyn said.

St Bathans Cemetery is next on the list.

More information is on CODC Cemetery Record Search website.