Based on the Internet Archive, www.cemetery.org is
the oldest online cemetery and memorial site in the world.
See the archival documentation by clicking here.
Mike’s original 1995 vision for the World Wide Cemetery
When a person we love or are close to dies, the desire to communicate our loss is both natural and strong. We use the media—all forms of print, as well as radio and television—to notify others of a loved one’s passing.
The Internet represents humankind’s greatest revolution in communication since Gutenberg invented movable type. The World Wide Web, shared globally by more than 30 million people, is an ideal place to announce the loss of someone we cherish and to erect a permanent monument to their memory. Such virtual monuments, unlike real ones, will not weather with the passage of time and can be visited easily by people from around the world.
Monuments in the World Wide Cemetery allow people to share the lives of their loved ones in ways that traditional printed death announcements or stone inscriptions cannot. Photographs, moving images and even sounds can be included with a monument. People can create hypertext links among family members, and in doing so forge a genealogy of Internet users and their families online and in real time.
The World Wide Cemetery is open to people of all religious faiths, and will allow us all to share the lives of our loved ones with people the world over. It is our sincerest hope that, when you erect a monument to a loved one in the World Wide Cemetery, doing so will provide you with a measure of solace, and, if you are walking through the Cemetery, that you delight and wonder in the diversity, uniqueness and accomplishments of its inhabitants.
Under no circumstances will we share or market your personal information.
I have the strange privilege of being able to contribute to my own monument. I’ve really enjoyed working on the World Wide Cemetery. It’s been a labour of love inspired by my confronting my own mortality. I hope you, the Internet community, feel it is a worthy addition to the World Wide Web and embrace it. — Mike Kibbee, Toronto, April 1995
While all the gods are blessed, Love — be it said in all reverence —
is the blessedest of all, for he is the loveliest and the best (Plato)
