July 19, 2010 Chatham, Illinois Cemetery Listings Going Online (javascript:showOdiogoReadNowFrame ('270710', 'chatham illinois cemetery listings going online', '0', 290, 55);) I wish all communities would do this! Information about who’s buried in Chatham’s municipal cemeteries, including date of death, grave site location, and military service, will be available via the village website at _www.chathamil.net_ (http://www.chathamil.net/) . The web site even includes information compiled by the village’s geographic information system (GIS) software. The village sees the new online database as a method of saving money, specifically, employee labor costs. Municipal employees previously used handwritten information on 3-by-5 index cards. That required a lot of time to find information. The new system will be much faster to search. A side benefit is that information will also be available to the general public, most of whom previously had to call the town's offices to request information, adding still more labor expense. Using the new "self-service" web site will reduce labor expenses significantly. The village website will link to the cemetery Web page, which will have four categories that visitors can search: by name of the deceased person, by name of the person who purchased the grave, by grave number, or a general search box that can use partial names or other information. For occupied grave sites, site visitors can click to view a digital photograph of the headstone. A map also will be available to show where each grave site is in relation to the rest of the cemetery. Grave sites that are occupied by veterans also will be marked. You can read more in an article by Amanda Reavy in the State Journal-Register web site at _http://www.sj-r.com/firstinprint/x1808631318/Chatham-to-put-gravesite-details-on-Web_ (http://www.sj-r.com/firstinprint/x1808631318/Chatham-to-put-gravesite-details-on-Web) Now, if they could only spell "cemetery" properly on the web site! Posted by Dick Eastman on July 19, 2010 in _Online Sites_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/online_sites/) | _Permalink_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/chatham-illinois-cemetery-listings -going-online.html) Comments (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/chatham-illinois-cemetery-listings-going-online/comments/atom.xml) You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the _comment feed_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/chatham-illinois-cemetery-listings-going-online/comm ents/atom.xml) for this post. For years, Evansville, Indiana has had superb online listings of interments in the city's municipal cemeteries (Oak HIll and Locust Hill). They can be found at _http://www.evansvillegov.org/cemeteries/._ (http://www.evansvillegov.org/cemeteries/) The Oak Hill database contains in excess of 60,000 entries. The listing for Oak Hill is based on a compilation on 3x5 index cards while the Locust Hill entries are based on ledgers some of which must be missing since many burials in this cemetery are not included in its database. The Oak Hill database contains 28 fields for information while Locust Hill has 29 fields. An incredible amount of information of interest to genealogists is included. Complementary to the cemeteries databases is an Evansville obituary database maintained for years by Charles Browning of the Browning Funeral Homes which is found at _http://browning.evpl.org/._ (http://browning.evpl.org/) It covers the period from the early 1900's to the present time and contains in excess of 537,000 index cards. Particularly valuable in this database is a listing of all relatives mentioned in an obituary, something lacking in the cemeteries databases. Posted by: David Berges | _July 20, 2010 at 06:54 AM_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/chatham-illinois-cemetery-listings-going- online.html?cid=6a00d8341c767353ef0134858f7141970c#comment-6a00d8341c767353e f0134858f7141970c) Here is also a link to all the cemetery inscriptions for Stark County, Ohio. _http://starkcountyogs.org/blog/publications/_ (http://starkcountyogs.org/blog/publications/) There are 6 books that can be downloaded, for free. Perhaps a list could be compiled from submittals from your wonderful readers. =) Posted by: Sally Hindley | _July 20, 2010 at 08:36 AM_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/chatham-illinois-cemetery-listings-going -online.html?cid=6a00d8341c767353ef0133f26a915e970b#comment-6a00d8341c767353 ef0133f26a915e970b) FindAGrave is such an excellent source. I don't understand why all of this can't be consolidated in some way, perhaps under that site. Posted by: Marilyn OLeary | _July 20, 2010 at 10:34 AM_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/chatham-illinois-cemetery-listings-goin g-online.html?cid=6a00 d8341c767353ef0133f26b14c8970b#comment-6a00d8341c767353ef0133f26b14c8970b) What a great article! I'm from Alliance, Box Butte County, Nebraska and we have a host of volunteers through our local museum that worked diligently (and still are working)to get obits for every person buried in the City Cemetery and all the other cemeteries located in Box Butte County. Our cemetery is online through www.findagrave.com and we also have a kiosk located at the cemetery that you can type in the last name of the person and find the location of the grave complete with maps. Anyone who contacts our museum (Knight Museum & Sandhills Center, [email protected]) and asks for any information on families will be sent a good amount of information plus a picture of the stone free of charge (unless the person would like to send a donation). They are also working on cemeteries that are in our area but not in our county, but still located in western Nebraska. Posted by: Sherri Fry | _July 20, 2010 at 11:03 AM_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/chatham-illinois-cemetery-listings-going-on line.html?cid=6a00d8341c767353ef0133f26b3638970b#comment-6a00d8341c767353ef0 133f26b3638970b)