When we talked about the members of the Church and
crowdsourcing, I thought about something I read a few months ago regarding family history work. There
is a new thing that is being placed on headstones—QR codes. This way, if
someone is looking at a headstone and wants to know more about who that person
was, he or she can scan the QR code with their smartphone and lookup the
information on that person. See this article for more information.
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| Courtesy of benchilada from flickr.com |
This code that is placed on these headstones can aid family
history work. By scanning the code, the users can have a link to the deceased
person’s information, such as date of birth, date of death, and family trees.
This could mean big things for family history work. I have a
grandpa who is really into family history work, and he would love it if something
like this were on every headstone. When he is doing research on our family, he
will go to the cemeteries, and take pictures of the headstone, and take them to
the library to see if he can find any more information about who that person
was. With this system, he won’t need to go to the library any more to look up
that information; he can look up who that person was right there on the spot,
saving lots of time.
Would we be able to put one of these on every headstone in the
world, though? Not likely. But it’s interesting to think about. These are
becoming more common now, and may become a standard part of the headstone.
I had no idea they were doing stuff like this. On one hand, it seems kind of strange, but on the other, this is a really great idea. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWhoa, mind blown! This is an amazing idea. It would be such a good way to help people interact with history, and especially family history. In the digital age, Memorial Day seems more old fashioned and disconnected from reality every year; if kids could pull out their phones and actually use them at the cemetery in a way they couldn't anywhere else, maybe they'd connect with their ancestors.
ReplyDeleteThis is really cool! I'd love to have something like this on a relative's headstone. In fact, the family members could personalize it!
ReplyDeleteHow about recording videos of yourself talking to posterity that would then be activated only upon someone scanning the QR code on your grave?
ReplyDelete