Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council - Cemetery and Memorial Management User

Abingdon Town Council

Abingdon Town Council contacted us with regards to our Cemetery and Memorial Management software because they were experiencing difficulties when a request for information was received from a family member who wanted details of family graves or a funeral director who wished to arrange an interment.

Their manual record system was very extensive with over 6000 records and each record requiring an entry in 3 different books, with each book holding various pieces of information but no one book holding all of the information, therefore this made searching for a record even more complicated. Also the books were handwritten and sometimes the legibility of the writing would cause further problems.

So the base criteria for a computerised system was to:

• enable the records to be searched quickly and efficiently
• provide the necessary documentation
• provide the registers as required by law
• provide a register of memorials
• provide a record of memorial inspections

Installation and Set Up

The Council made available all record books, maps and cemetery information to RBS and then the Cemetery Supervisor worked with RBS to set the system up. The following information was required for the set up:
• Cemetery Name and the sections within the cemetery, including full details such as whether the section was consecrated or un-consecrated, the grave numbering and full details of the types of grave e.g. triple, double or single depth.
• Grant of Exclusive Right details including grant period.
• Full price list.

Training

Once the set up was complete then training began with the Cemetery Supervisor and the relevant staff, who would be undertaking the entry of the records on to the system. To ensure that the software could be used to its full potential they also appointed an additional person on a short term contract to enter the historical records.

Benefit

Steve Rich, Project & Technical Manager for Abingdon Town Council says “the software has made the processing of the cemetery data much more efficient and quicker when searching for burial records. Whilst the council had to make an investment in the time required for the entry of historical data, we feel that this has been recouped in the long term when searching for information and for producing reports and information when requested”.

Since the implementation of the software the Town Council has experienced problematic staffing issues which had impacted on correct and accurate records being maintained. To remedy this situation the Town Council contacted RBS Software with a view to bringing the records up-to-date and, as staff were not being replaced, to process all future interments, pre-purchases and continuing to enter historic records on to the computer system. RBS Software are now contracted on a regular basis to carry out these tasks.