Thanks to Murray Pletsch for bringing this to our attention. Polite action is called for - tell them NO!
Cause for Concern...
It has come to our attention that the City of Waterloo in Ontario Canada is considering
implementing a bylaw that would ban photography at all municipal cemeteries.
The proposed bylaw:
"Photography: No person shall cause or permit the taking
of any photographic or video imaging within any Cemetery except with the
prior permission of the Manager."
This would mean that as of
September 1st, no one would be allowed to take
photographs or video in any municipally owned cemetery operated by the City
of Waterloo without prior permission.
In other words, you could not take a photograph or video of a headstone you
own without prior permission. Or a photograph / video of a loved ones
headstone. Or request that someone take a photograph / video on your behalf
without prior permission. The bylaw does not provide guidelines for granting
or denying permission, only that the manager would decide.
Approval of this bylaw would also set a precedent for other municipalities
in Ontario to follow.
It would have a major impact on genealogy, and not just in terms of projects
like ours (think of the number of cemetery photographs you currently use in
your personal genealogy research!)
There are also multiple businesses and organizations that use cemetery
photographs, including the government.
Luckily there is time to stop this bylaw from being approved, and your help
is need to make this happen.
The bylaw changes were submitted to The Bereavement Authority of Ontario for
approval. The BAO are the ones who ultimately decide if cemetery bylaws will
be approved.
Before
September 1st, please take a moment and send them a polite written
message to let them know what you think about this bylaw and how it would
impact you personally.
Bereavement Authority of Ontario
Email:
info@thebao.ca
Telephone:
647-483-2645
Toll Free:
844-493-6356
Fax:
647-748-2645
Mail: Bereavement Authority of Ontario, 100 Sheppard Avenue East, Suite 505,
Toronto, ON M2N 6N5
Need more info? The cemetery bylaws were discussed by the City of Waterloo
Council at their July 24th meeting. A copy of the agenda can be read here:
http://www.waterloo.ca/en/calendar/council/Details.aspx?Id=d11b5d9f-7c1a-4326-9fde-8369970131fa
The proposed cemetery bylaws are on pages 101-177, the clause regarding
photography is on page 113.
Hendrick was 47 years old and with him were his five children including his daughter, my 8th great grandmother Eva Hendrickse Vroomn. Eva was 14 years old. Hendrick was a widower, his youngest child was only 5 years old. Their ship, De Eendracht, arrived in the harbour 19 July 1664.
Good news for those of us searching their Irish Catholic ancestors! The National Library of Ireland has announced that it will give free online access to its archive of Catholic Church records, the earliest of which dates back to the 1700s.
Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin went
to milk their cows in a meadow above Chandolin in the Valais canton on
August 15, 1942. They left their seven children back at home, expecting to return in a few hours. They never came back.
If you have New Netherland ancestors, come join us on the New Netherland Settlers Facebook group.
FreeCEN offers a free-to-search online database of the 19th century UK censuses. Transcribed entirely by volunteers, we have more than 32 million individuals available on our website that anyone can search without having to create an account. The new ‘FreeCEN2’ website (https://freecen2.freecen.org.
Olive Tree Genealogy is very excited and honored to be chosen as one of Family Tree Magazine's Top 101 Genealogy sites for 2017.
