The Challenges of Putting Cemetery Records into a GIS

The Worcester Telegram highlights the challenges one small town, Northboro, MA, is having getting its handwritten cemetery records into a digital, searchable form.

[Director of Public Works Kara] Buzanoski’s goal is to one day be able to type a name into a search bar and have a record, complete with burial coordinates, show up on a computer screen within seconds. Software for a searchable database would cost at least $5,000, she said, and a geographic information system, or GIS, map would cost at least $10,000. The DPW’s budget for this year already has been depleted, and next year may not be any better.

Equally interesting are the comments, one of which suggests that students, even high school students, could tackle the project as part of their history studies.