A NEW online system has been launched housing family records dating back to 1875 for town residents.

Pershore Town Council has launched its new interactive mapping tool for Pershore Cemetery, showing 4,327 memorials and 1,771 unmarked grave locations.

The Town Council appointed Atlantic Geomatics to create a new, accurate and up-to-date map of Pershore Cemetery, including photographs of memorials and headstones together with images and indexes of associated records.

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It is a free, secure and easy-to-use, web-based map system which holds and protects burial records.

It will enable members of the public to search for family records in an instant without tracing historic written records.  

Cllr Julie Hemming, chair of the council's Cemetery Committee, said: "The mammoth task of recording each interment and all the details from the records was completed by volunteers and staff from the town council and associates over many years."

This interactive mapping system dates back to the first burial in Pershore Cemetery, which took place in November 1875.

The system has recorded over 10,000 burials in over 5,200 graves.  

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Mrs Charlie MacIntyre, town clerk, said: “I am so pleased that this tool has now been launched. We have received many comments from members of the public regarding the simplicity of the tool and their delight at being able to trace family members.

"It’s really helping to administer the Cemetery records in the office too.”

To find a grave of a loved one, or to begin tracing your family history, you can visit: https://pershore.burialgrounds.co.uk/mapmanagement.