High-resolution aerial map of your burial records, intuitive to use and update, living in your own website.
How it works
We fly the drone
We digitise your records
You get a searchable map
1 · The map
Your own aerial photograph, with every grave marked, searchable and one click from its record.
DEMO: Simplified interactive illustration. Click a grave, use Prev and Next, or search.
A fully licensed drone operator photographs your own burial ground in high resolution, and every plot is laid over it, GPS-accurate, exactly where it really is. It's fine if the rows aren't in a neat grid, the system allows for these shifts.
A simple, intuitive design for both the public and the editor. Click a grave for the names, details and a photograph of the headstone, and walk through the rows with Prev and Next. No manuals needed.
When logged in, you can view (and edit) every detail of the grave and its interments; when logged out, only a restricted set of information will be shown.
Sensitive data, and any reserved and empty plots stay hidden from the public. Data encryption (AES-256-GCM) can be turned on for contact details and any custom fields - built to support your UK GDPR duties. The whole map can also sit behind a login.
Suggestions appear immediately as residents type a name, and any single grave can be shared as a link. Works on a phone too.
2 · Your records
We digitise your registers, spreadsheets and paperwork, check every entry, and link it all to its grave.
Bound registers, spreadsheets, scanned deeds and plans, brought together in one system, with every burial and grant (and the holder's contact details) linked to its grave. You don't need to lift a finger: we photograph, transcribe, import and match it all. The originals stay on the shelf, never altered.
Before we build anything, we learn the steps your clerk or burials officer prefer to follow: grants, burials, enquiries, paperwork. Then we set the system up to match your processes, not the other way round. That includes the field names and the data-entry forms your clerk and the public use.
Bring an export of your burial records from your current system. CSV or Excel files work best, but we'll make our best efforts to coax the data out of any system.
Entries are cross-checked, including against headstone inscriptions. There's an easy flag for review comment system for anything unclear, and we settle it with you against the book.
Residents can report a mistake from the map, and grant holders can send new contact details through a form on your website. Reports are emailed to you and added to your dashboard, alongside any doubtful entries you've flagged. New contact details appear side by side with the old, and nothing changes until you approve it.
Export everything to a spreadsheet and back in again, any time, with no format only we can read. An encrypted backup is taken every month (the last three are kept), a snapshot you can save yourself before a big clean-up, and an edit history is kept on every record - who, what, when.
3 · Fit
It sits inside your council website, where residents and families already look.
The map is search-engine friendly, so extended family searching for a name can find their way to the grave via your council's own website.
The map appears on a page of your choosing, in your own menu. There is no new website for anyone to find or remember, or awkward ‘frames’ to embed external content. On WordPress it installs as a plugin.
The records live on your site and stay yours, and you can export them to a spreadsheet at any time. No other branding, no advertising: your council is the only name residents see.
We can try to install it on your existing hosting package alongside your website. Otherwise, we host the map and it appears within your own website's address, like yourparish.gov.uk/cemetery. Whoever looks after your website adds one routing setting (we can help), and your menu links to it. We only hold your data on your behalf, under a data-processing agreement.
4 · Pay
A fixed set-up fee, then a small amount per memorial and per person recorded.
Agreed in writing before we start.
Empty plots set up for future burials aren't charged, and neither is VAT. Each person counts once, whether they are buried, interred as ashes or commemorated on a memorial - or somehow, all three (it happens). Any mismatches in your records are resolved with you, never guessed.
We review a sample of your records first, then quote a fixed total before any work starts, so you can put it to your council meeting as a single item. Setup and records input can be split and billed as separate projects if needed.
Your accounts can stay where they are. Cemetery Guidemap doesn't take payments or do your accounts. We may replicate some features you're already using elsewhere, but we can help to import and export data for as long as you need to get the best of both worlds.
You can be up and running within a month. We can give you a realistic estimate after seeing a few sample pages.
We want to keep this as simple and clean a process as possible, but we're always listening for ideas and suggestions!
It is built for councils in England. Burial law, and in Wales language requirements, differ elsewhere. Get in touch and we'll tell you honestly what would need to change.
A no-strings chat, online or at your council office. Tell us how you're working today, and we'll see if we can help make your life easier and better-looking 😁
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