Board weighs digitizing cemetery records after new tombstone found at Rosedale

Board members discussed consolidating submitted cemetery discovery forms and historic lists into a publicly accessible record. Dorothy (S3) described current practice of keeping forms in a binder and the difficulty of reconciling multiple sources: “This one has 307 cemeteries on it, whereas the Nellie Marshall book has 363,” she said, noting the need for cross-referencing to avoid labeling previously reported sites as new.

The Chair reported that Mike visited a Rosedale site and confirmed the cemetery was already listed but also identified a tombstone that had not been recorded, underscoring the value of continued public reporting. Dorothy outlined technical options and limitations: scanning PDFs could produce quickly outdated files without an easy update workflow, while a searchable database indexed by ZIP or 911 address would be more user-friendly but require more work to create and maintain.

Members proposed practical steps: circulate the current Excel spreadsheet to board members, seek volunteer help from the historical society or interns to update lists, categorize cemeteries (church, community, family), and prepare a publication plan that accounts for an upcoming website transition. Staff noted the new website planned for September–October will require manual content migration, so material posted now may need republishing.