A database that is being called "Google Maps for graves" is being created by the Church of England to help alleviate pressure on vicars being bombarded with requests for information about family trees.
Surveyors equipped with laser scanners have begun work on mapping every grave, headstone and memorial in England's 19,000 graveyards. The project aims to create a free database for people keen to discover where their ancestors are buried, with the work starting in Cumbria.
Television programmes such as the BBC's Who Do You Think you Are? and an increase in online databases and DNA test websites have led to an increase in the demand for information.
The database project is being funded by Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund and genealogy websites Family Search and My Heritage.
Tim Viney, owner of Atlantic Geomatics, the company responsible for mapping the churchyards, said that he hoped to expand the project to other religious denominations and other countries.
Mr Viney said the ￡10,000 scanners the surveyors wear on their backs to map the land were "a bit Ghostbusters", adding: "This is far more accurate than Google Maps, though. We can pinpoint down to around 15cm with this gear."
The surveyors walk along every alternate row of graves, scanning the position of each memorial, building, wall and tree. This will take up to 50 million measurements in every graveyard.
The Venerable Richard Pratt, Archdeacon of West Cumberland in the Diocese of Carlisle, said churches were seeing an "enormous amount of interest in family trees", adding: "I think there's an understandable interest that humans have in wanting to find out who we are and where we come from.
"As well as the TV programmes that fuel that interest there's a lot more material online nowadays, and I think that during lockdown there was quite a resurgence in interest in researching ancestry."
It is expected that the first digitised churchyards will be online by autumn, but the entire project will take up to seven years to finish.