I can only agree that photographic records are a valuable resource to both the community in general and to individuals interested in the family history aspect.
At a more practical level, the supply of headstone photographs for a fee is one way of earning any historical society some income towards the acquisition of further resources - and a service that would be appreciated by people such as myself for whom a personal visit to the Maitland area cemeteries is a major exercise in terms of time and distance (our one trip to Maitland-Lochinvar took us two years and an annual holiday to organise).
However, your future customers need to know whether or not they have relatives buried in the area. Might I suggest that the society reinstate the Cemetery Search Facility which used to be available on your website.
In our case, that facility revealed a couple of relatives, whom we previously didn't know had even existed, buried in Campbells Hill Cemetery. I would suggest that the freely available knowledge of whether or not family members are buried in the area would generate more interest in photo sales, etc. I believe that people are more willing to pay $10 for a photo of a headstone or burial site of someone they KNOW are buried in a particular cemetery than $5 for an enquiry relating to someone who MIGHT be buried there.
Regards Barbara
