Preserving two centuries of history

Four decades worth of work to transcribe information from gravestones in more than a thousand cemeteries around the country has finally come to fruition. More than 1-point-6 million records spanning two centuries have been preserved - early inscriptions, fascinating historical and sometimes tragic tales have been digitised so that anyone anywhere can now find out about their own personal - and their country's - history. Ben Mercer is the content manager at Ancestry.com.