About Yorkshire Burials
Formerly Leeds Indexers
Originally formed in August 2000 as the Leeds Indexers,
we were a group of family historians actively researching in the Leeds
area. Living locally, we were well aware of its vast size and the
challenges of locating burial and memorial records.
Some of our members were already working on individual transcription projects, and it made sense to bring this work together and share the information with other family historians.
We were never a formal society or family history group — simply a collective of like-minded people with a shared aim of making genealogical information freely accessible. This led to the creation of the Leeds & District Records, Inscriptions and Plans project.
Yorkshire Indexers
As time went on, our work expanded beyond Leeds into other parts of Yorkshire. Creating and distributing CDs containing PDF records became increasingly cumbersome and difficult to maintain, so we rebranded as Yorkshire Indexers and developed an online searchable database.
With the growth of digital photography, we were also able to build an extensive image gallery and link photographs directly to transcribed records. This allowed researchers not only to find an entry in an index, but in many cases to see the associated memorial or original source image.
The image above is a reminder of our original PhotoPost gallery. It served us well for many years, but eventually the software was no longer supported and it became impossible to maintain and update the site securely.
Yorkshire Burials
Rather than lose the work that had been built up over many years, we decided to take the bull by the horns and create a completely new website and database from the ground up.
Yorkshire Burials is the latest chapter in that story. Our aim remains much the same as it was when we started in 2000: to transcribe, preserve and make available burial and memorial records that can help people discover more about their Yorkshire ancestors.
The new website has allowed us to bring together records, inscriptions, photographs and other information in a way that is easier to search and maintain. Improvements include:
- Advanced searching across multiple record fields
- Better integration between transcribed records and photographs
- A searchable list of sources and records transcribed
- Gallery searching by area, cemetery and section
- Continued addition of new transcriptions and images
- More features as the project continues to develop
Free for Everyone
Yorkshire Burials is, and will remain, a free resource. We believe that the records we transcribe should be available to everyone, whether they are researching a single ancestor or undertaking a much larger family history project.
We sincerely thank all our previous subscribers and everyone who has supported the project over the years. Your generosity has helped make what you see today possible.
Supporting Yorkshire Burials
Yorkshire Burials is run by volunteers who are passionate about preserving burial records, memorial inscriptions, photographs and other valuable genealogical information, and making them freely available to everyone.
Although access to our records is free, running and maintaining the website isn't. There are ongoing costs for web hosting, storage, backups and the services required to keep the database available and secure.
If Yorkshire Burials has helped you with your family history research, please consider making a small contribution towards these costs. Every donation, however small, helps us keep Yorkshire Burials free and enables us to continue adding and preserving records for future researchers.
Thank you for helping us preserve Yorkshire's burial heritage.
Thank You
Finally, a heartfelt thank you to the many individuals, volunteers, family historians and organisations who have helped us along the way. Whether you have transcribed records, photographed memorials, supplied information, reported corrections or supported the running of the website, your contribution is greatly appreciated.
After more than two decades, the technology may have changed considerably, but the principle behind the project has not: preserving Yorkshire's burial records and making them freely available to everyone.