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Archiver > TX-CEMETERIES > 2006-03 > 1141835439


From: "Sue Tackel" <>
Subject: Re: [TXCem] Plotting a cemetery
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 10:30:39 -0600
References: <030820061527.3902.440EF7C80003715200000F3E2160466648CECA090A@att.net>


It's great to use a digital camera to record all the headstones as you
go. It's way faster than writing everything down out there in the cemetery.
I too, have plotted a cemetery using Excel cells as each grave plot. If
you just number the graves (Excel cells) , then you can use those numbers to
do a data sheet with the headstone information, or the ownership of the
plot. It's a BIG job to keep up with burials and ownership of plots!!!
Check the link about recording cemeteries -
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~drycreek/survey.htm
Sue



----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: [TXCem] Plotting a cemetery


> That sounds like a good idea. I don't know Excel, but maybe my husband is
> familiar with it. I know he has done spread sheets.
> Our present plat map is one my mom started years ago with a tape measure
> and graph paper. She didn't get very far and her system is confusing.
> We've already figured out we need to scrap that and start over. We also
> have some very irregular rows.
> There is virtually no documentation. There were 2 churches out there when
> I was a kid but no one kept burial records.
> Any additional tips/directions would be much appreciated.
> --
> Elayne Pair Gibbons
> www.PairPlace.net
>
>
> -------------- Original message from "Sarah"
> <>: --------------
>
>
>> Have you ever used Excel to plot a cemetery? I've been working on a
>> fairly
>> large cemetery, so I just used it to show 38 rows across and 97 rows
>> down.
>> I am NOT using it for actual dimensions. These rows are pretty irregular
>> and
>> I winged it in several places but it is good enough for my purpose.
>>
>> The historic old New Braunfels Cemetery has approximately 1,240 burials,
>> and
>> over 500 headstones are missing. I just finished plotting the graves out
>> in
>> Excel, making each cell a grave. I typed in all the names that I knew,
>> based
>> on existing tombstones, last name first. It is easy to click in a line
>> around a family plot. Once I got thru I told the printer to print it out
>> 2
>> sheets tall and 4 sheets wide. Then I taped them together, and took them
>> to
>> Kinkos where they enlarged it to about 3' wide. I want to take it to the
>> German meeting in Yoakum this weekend, with a scale large enough to be
>> able
>> to write in any graves or plots people know about. I can also compare
>> names
>> on the list to guesstimate where people might belong.
>>
>> The City of New Braunfels has no accurate documentation, so we
>> transcribed
>> the existing tombstones and the old burials from 1873-1917 into Excel.
>> The
>> graves with tombstones had a separate column with a T in it, so as I went
>> thru comparing old records to tombstones, I could delete duplicates. Now
>> I
>> can sort them various ways...by surname, maiden name, date etc. I can
>> color
>> cells to highlight them, as an example the burials of the founding
>> families.
>> First Founders by Everett Fey mentions in which cemetery many of the
>> families were buried, so it has been a great help.
>>
>> I wish I knew more about Excel, because I am sure there would be a way to
>> link the alphabetical list to the grave cell on the plan. Maybe next
>> time.
>>
>> Sarah in San Antonio
>>
>>
>>
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