This week the Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario, where Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, is buried, used a drone to map the 40-hectare site and its 15,000 graves. The result is high-resolution photos of every centimetre of the property, and the detailed mapping will eventually benefit genealogists.
According to a news release from the cemetery, the low-altitude photography provides a fast and highly accurate means for providing a base for its mapping and information management efforts.
“The current project will allow us to map tablets, monuments, buildings and trees to accuracies within a centimetre,” said the news release.
“In addition to improving our ground operations, the overall project will, as it develops, provide an important resource for families, genealogists and the community.”
Rowland Tinline, secretary of Cataraqui Cemetery and professor emeritus at Queen’s University geographical information systems, said, “We’ve embarked on a very long-term project to make sure that every monument is completely mapped.”
Funeral of Sir John A. Macdonald, Cataraqui Cemetery, Kingston, Ontario, June 1891. Library and Archives Canada. MIKAN 3365414.
The Cataraqui Cemetery was incorporated in 1850. A few years ago, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.
Read more about the mapping project at Cataraqui Cemetery in the Kingston Whig-Standard.
Question: Does this have possibilities for actually being able to read the monument inscriptions, as well or only their placement within the piece of geography?
Craig Boals, direction of operations, Cataraqui Cemetery Company, said, “Even though the photography does have very good resolution it is unlikely that inscriptions on the monuments could be read. The drone flies over top – capturing the monuments from above. As most carvings and inscription are on the sides of the monument, these would not be captures by the drone. At this time, it is too early to tell if any of the flat markers (those placed on the ground face up) would be visible.
“As for an online application, in order to see such a degree of detail, the viewable files would be very large and extremely slow to download or due to the resolution required. To put them online the resolution would be minimized.. leaving the high resolution aspect for our internal operations.”
Hi Roger,
In response to your question, the side of the monument (where carving adn inscriptions ar emost common) would not be visiblie due to the drones overhead perspective.