he photographs cemeteries to preserve the memory of our ancestors

Didier Taldu is a volunteer. In his Jura or the countries he visits, he regularly photographs monuments and graves. Painstaking work then put online and accessible to families and genealogists.

Don't take him to visit a church! Didier Taldu is very lucky to then take a look at the cemetery, camera in hand and capture all the graves. This 62-year-old retiree began photographing the war memorials for the centenary of 1914-1918 about ten years ago.

Passionate about photos, history, a great-grandfather who died during the Great War, it was enough for Didier Taldu to continue his mission, this time for “Save our tombs”, created in 2014 and supported by Geneanet, the leading European online genealogy site.

“I often visited the cemeteries, along with the churches. These are places that captivate me with their history. I started with the cemeteries of the Jura. Today I have 43,000 photos of graves, commemorative plaques, monuments to the dead” confides the volunteer.

Back home, Didier Taldu posts these photos online on the Save our tombs site.

It's gratifying to say that we can help families and genealogy buffs alike.

Didier Taldu, “Save the graves” volunteer

In this immense virtual cemetery, which is the “Save the Tombs” site, everyone can discover the cemetery of the small village of their childhood if it has been photographed, see what condition the grave of your great-grandparents is in, which tombs will reach the end of their concessions, find the exact date of birth and death of a deceased person. A photo, a face so dear.

Didier Taldu's mission takes time. If it's a big cemetery, he'll come back several times. “If it’s a small cemetery, I photograph everything in one block, including recent graves” he said.

Jura, Vosges, Allier…Didier also sometimes helps. A few years ago, he was contacted by someone who wanted to reconnect with his family. “I placed his coordinates on a grave on laminated paper” he remembers. There are several people who thank me from time to time for my work, explains the Jura resident.

And when he goes on vacation or travels with the 2 CVs that he collects, Didier Taldu completes this memory work all over France. “I also made a very small cemetery on the Slovak border side, it had a very special dimension”. The one in Zagreb also left its mark.

Save the Graves, today brings together 32,000 volunteers in 109 countries. Thanks to this collective international commitment, the memory of our ancestors, often forgotten or threatened by the abandonment of graves, is now preserved for future generations.

During All Saints' Day, many of you still go to the cemeteries. Didier Taldu invites other volunteers to join the collective work of “Save our tombs”, it is also an application that you can use from your smartphone.

“You can participate on your own scale, by making the graves of your own family, the graves whose concession is expiring as a priority. We don't have to do everything, but it's better to tackle everything if we can.

Didier Taldu, “Save our graves” volunteer

“It’s nice, it’s participatory. If I can help others so much the better, I don’t expect anything in return” he says humbly.

7 million graves are indexed

on Geneanet. You can search by name, municipality, department or date.