Diphtheria, mining accidents and blizzards were among the common causes of death at one of Central’s largest cemeteries, and so far, the most challenging within the district-wide digitisation project.

Work is now complete at Roxburgh Cemetery, which has been added to the Central Otago District Council’s online cemetery database for people to have complete access to burial records.

What struck Council staff who worked on the project was the clear progression in modern medicine, workplace safety and living conditions – the gravestones and cemetery records told this story in the inscriptions that depicted disease, accidents and common ailments, which began to decrease as causes of mortality as the years went by.

Roxburgh Cemetery now contains more than 2200 digitised records compared with about 1200 records at Ranfurly Cemetery where digitisation was recently completed.

Central Otago District Council cadet, Jocelyn Ryan, has spent more than 600 hours photographing, researching, and digitising the Roxburgh cemetery records.

“Roxburgh cemetery has been a challenge due to the size and age of the cemetery. Lost cemetery records pre-1900s and the lack of headstones made identifying unknown plots near-impossible.”

Roxburgh Cemetery opened for burials in the 1860s, when the gold rush hit the Teviot Valley and took Roxburgh from a quiet country town to a booming mining city. There are a number of unknown plots simply named as ‘old miners’.

“We know from newspaper articles that there were two grass fires in 1875 and 1883, caused by a fellow miner leaving a candle burning for a friend and another by adolescents.”

“People are proud of the history of the cemetery, which was the last home for the great, the good, and the humble.”

CODC's Chief Information Officer Nathan McLeod said more than 600 hours of work has gone into the project, 1500 photos taken, and more than 2200 records digitised - a great effort by the information team. 

"Getting the Roxburgh Cemetery information online is another step in our digital programme of making our services and information more accessible."

CODC group manager community experience David Scoones said the project showed the value placed on future-proofing burial records.

“Cemeteries are fascinating and historical places, but it’s good to have the option to be able to look online if you can’t visit in person, or to verify the information that you see on a gravestone.”

The team has now moved onto St Bathans Cemetery with digitisation underway.