Map and records search: – St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery
Number of Records: About 2000 plots with less than 10 burials per year.
Location: Yorktown, Texas, United States.
- Digitalised cemetery records
- Physical survey of the cemetery grounds
- Interactive online cemetery map
- 24/7 online access to plot/cemetery information
- Customised database management solutions delivered at a highly affordable price
Digital technology has made anything possible and easier to do. Digitising physical documents has proven to be more effective and organized than conducting manual work. For cemetery operations, digitising the cemetery is absolutely necessary to keep databases dated back years ago safe and manageable. Particularly, there are still many cemeteries doing manual records and mapping by writing and drawing on paper. This is risky since the documents can be lost or not be illegible anymore.
Not only does this problem influence the efficiency of cemetery management performance, but it also impacts the community when it comes to accessing information about the interments. For this reason, Chronicle provides service to digitise the cemetery’s directories and maps, helping the cemetery managers and the community to engage with the cemetery in a meaningful way.
Needing for a more efficient cemetery management system
It is very common that cemetery management is handled by volunteers. That is also the case for St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery. Kristin, who works full-time as a kindergarten teacher, has devoted her time to volunteering as a cemetery administrator for St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery.
She found out that she had to deal with physical paper for documents and records. All of the cemetery’s maps and records were hand-drawn or hand-written on paper. Details of the deceased were organized in separate two spreadsheet files sorted alphabetically and in sections and then filled in by hand. Obviously, working this way would require more time and energy, especially since working for two different jobs is not an easy task.
Digitising the cemetery for accuracy
The first step of digitising the cemetery was to collect all information regarding the cemetery, which would be inputted into the Chronicle app. After the data were obtained from Kristin, an aerial survey using a drone and a field visit to take pictures of the gravestones were organised. Then, the process continued to create digital versions of the data collected from Kristin, such as pictures, maps, records, and diagrams. We overlaid and surveyed the original plan as a reference in the process of digitising.
There is always a probability that some data are not accurate and needed to be reassured. This is the challenge that we faced during the process of consolidating the data, map, and plots. Thanks to Kristin that was really reliable to help us check and clarify the accuracy of the real cemetery situation and the aerial imagery we conducted.
Next, the process continued to connect the physical interment location by using coordinates to the burial records within Chronicle’s app system. The goal was to cross-check for any discrepancies and created more organized and easily accessed information for cemetery details. Once this process was completed, it was ready to deliver to Kristin.
Better cemetery management and public experience
A better cemetery management system like the one provided by Chronicle is a powerful tool for cemetery operators to manage all their administrative works. The easy-to-access, user-friendly interface allows the cemetery administrator to input and searches for interment details quickly and accurately.
Moreover, Chronicle Cemetery Software lets the public seek information about their loved ones with the same app. Now, St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery can use our free QR code design for the public to easily access information about the interments by simply scanning the code. They can use the walk-to-grave feature to find the location of their loved ones easily. In addition, they can also share the life stories of their loved ones with our Life Chronicle feature, other people and future generations can get to know about those departed. Even more, we also share revenue for every Life Chronicle submission to the cemetery.
We are optimistic that digital technology like ours will engage the community with the cemetery in a more meaningful way. We uphold this idea and create more improved features in our product and services based on feedback and suggestions from our customers.
Let us know if you would like to provide suggestions or discuss your cemetery digitisation project with us.