Have you ever taken a walk through a cemetery? Often the only time we visit cemeteries is when we are there for a funeral. But going back at other times for a walk can be very interesting. Cemeteries are generally quiet, peaceful places where you can stroll around and get a glimpse of the past.
Admittedly, cemeteries usually conjure up spooky feelings, but they really aren’t that way. I have always found a walk through a cemetery very fascinating as I read the names and inscriptions on the gravestones. It is amazing to think of all those lives and experiences represented there. Some people had long lives and others had their life cut short, especially those of infants that are marked with only one date or just a year.
Have you ever thought of all of the history and information that is available in a cemetery? While family members may not be able to remember a certain relative’s birth or death date, that relative’s gravestone will generally hold the information. Some gravestones even include where a person was born or where they died. My great-great grandfather’s gravestone lists the town in Scotland where he was born in 1822 and I always enjoy reading that, knowing that he immigrated to America in the 1850s.
However, gravestones can become unreadable over time when lichen covers the stone or when the elements have battered them. If you have spent time wandering through cemeteries, I’m sure you’ve seen gravestones that are impossible to read. If that information wasn’t recorded somewhere, then it is now lost for the family and the community.
There are websites that are devoted to collecting the genealogical details found in cemeteries. Two that I like using are www.FindaGrave.com and www.BillionGraves.com because they have pictures of the gravestones and the information from them transcribed. This information is then cross referenced in a data base on the websites so that people can type in a person’s name and see if their grave is recorded on the website.
BillionGraves has partnered with the Cedar Rapids History Center and the service organization JustServe.org to try to gather the information from the cemeteries throughout eastern Iowa. The project is called Rescuing Our Roots and there is a push to have 1,000,000 gravestones documented with photos and transcriptions. While that goal may seem impossible, right now already almost 300,000 gravestone photos have been taken and over 800,000 records have been transcribed.
Getting involved is easy and lots of participation in our area is vital. To register, you simply go to www.BillionGraves.com/rescue and click on “Join Project” to sign up and get started. From there you click on “Volunteer” to begin transcribing records or to select a cemetery to visit to take pictures and upload to the website.
I was glad to see that the Mount Vernon and Lisbon Cemeteries have been completely documented on BillionGraves. I searched the surrounding area and found several others that need photos taken or that have photos uploaded that haven’t been transcribed. Among these are the following cemeteries: St. Bridget, Olin, Ivanhoe, Clarence, Moore-Skillman, and the Pioneer Cemetery in Mechanicsville.
This is a fantastic project to become involved with. We can help to save the information in our cemeteries, which will contribute to the history of our communities. We owe much to the people who came before us and created the towns that we live in and this is a way to preserve their memory. We also can honor the many veterans in our cemeteries by documenting this information.
People who are working on their family trees in areas far from Iowa rely on websites like BillionGraves to locate the information about their ancestors who lived here. We can help gather and document this information by joining this project. By learning about and understanding our past, we will begin to appreciate the world that we live in and make it better for those who will come after us.