THE search for the burial sites of family and friends has been made easier by City Parks: it has launched an online database of cemeteries in Johannesburg.

And soon City Parks hopes to have captured data that goes back as far as the 1880s, when the first person in Johannesburg was buried.

Brixton cemetery

About 18 months ago, City Parks introduced an electronic-payment option in cemeteries - a safer and more convenient way of handling finances.

When cemeteries and crematoria assessed requests from families for information about the deceased, City Parks decided to extend the electronic system: from being a purely financial tool, it would now be used as a database of general information.

"This system is user-friendly for the management of information as well as for limited access for family members to search for their deceased," says Alan Buff, the general manager of technical support and training for City Parks.

It is hoped that, when the system is running and all the data has been captured, it will be possible to search for funeral and burial information within an hour of the burial.

The database will go a long way in capturing and analysing information for statistics. There is information about the gender, race and age of the deceased - as well as about ratios of burial to cremation and natural to unnatural death. Death and burial trends are also recorded.

"There are over 78 000 different reports that can be done," says Buff.

Cracking down on illegal undertakers is something else that should follow. The undertaker involved needs to provide details - as well as proof of his competency and a certificate of compliance. If this cannot be provided, then it is obvious "that he is practising illegally", says Buff.

"Cemeteries are a part of our heritage and they are also the green parts of our cities," he says.

The information database should also interest tourists who may want to visit the graves of famous people in Johannesburg.

The first cemetery in Johannesburg was laid out in 1886 on the corner of Bree and Harrison streets; the first person buried in town was Mary Dearlove, who died on 29 March 1887, at the age of 45.

Braamfontein Cemetery

The City of Johannesburg now comprises 11 former cities and towns, 33 cemeteries and two crematoria.

The largest of the cemeteries is the 172-hectare Avalon Cemetery in Soweto. This cemetery was opened in 1972 and holds the remains of many heroes of the struggle against apartheid, including: Joe Slovo, the general secretary of South African Communist Party and former chief-of-staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, and women's leaders Lilian Ngoyi and Helen Joseph.

Alfred Nzo, democratic South Africa's first minister of foreign affairs, Joe Modise, the first minister of defence in post-apartheid South Africa, and Nkosi Johnson, the young Aids activist, are buried in Westpark Cemetery.

Enoch Sontonga, who composed the South African anthem, 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrica', is buried in the Braamfontein Cemetery.

For more about the heritage routes of Johannesburg's cemeteries, or to search for the name of a deceased, go to the Johannesburg City Parks website.