$38,923 Grant for Johnson County, Missouri Digital Cemetery Project

We need more grants like this one! The Johnson County Library will enable names and dates on grave markers in Johnson County cemeteries to be more accessible to genealogists and other researchers. With assistance from a grant of $38,923 from the Johnson County Heritage Trust Fund authorized by the Board of County Commissioners, the Johnson County Library will implement its Digital Cemetery Project: Recording and Preserving Cemeteries in Johnson County.

The project will put an inventory of local cemeteries on www.jocohistory. Total project cost is $61,860, with the remainder of the funding provided by the library. The inventory will include names, dates, grave locations, and photographs of grave markers.

You can read more in the KansasCity.com web site at http://www.kansascity.com/news/neighborhood/leawood/story/911439.html.

Comments

[Teresa]

I wholeheartedly agree. I have been doing this for Rutherford County, TN with the help of volunteer photographers for years. I'd love to have money for them to purchase gas and to pay me to stay at home and build the websites.
As it is, we are slowly building up a website of cemeteries that we are very proud of and researchers in the county will benefit from for years to come.
Since I don't live in TN, I am so thankful for my photographers who send me pictures and sometimes have to wait years to see me finally get their hard work online. More counties could do this without a grant, if more dedicated workers were willing to work together, photographing and building websites.

[Cherie]

I believe you'll find that this article refers to Johnson County, KS. Overland Park is a KC suburb that is on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro area.

[Catpurrson]

Yep, this refers to Johnson County, KANSAS, NOT Johnson County, Missouri. This makes at all the more impressive because Johnson County, Kansas, has a much larger population than Johnson County, Missouri, and the volume of cemetery data will be much greater.

[nancypf]

your jocohistory link does not work!!

[Sheila]

Type in: http://www.jocohistory.net/ or go to Google and type in: johnson county history to get to the site.

[Carol Kuse]

Having worked on this project with Linda, and also being a genealogy volunteer at the Johnson County Library. I know this refers to Kansas not Missouri. We are all thrilled with this grant. The actual photos of the headstones are on the website. The library also is entering Obituary Indexes on their website.

[Jim McMillen]

Volunteers in Johnson County, Missouri, have already put surveys of a surprising number of county cemeteries on line. Not too many tombstone photos, however. Go to http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mojohnso/

[Melinda Pitts Pennington]

I wish I had Johnson Co., KS roots. This is a gold mine for any Johnson Co. researcher. Great news!

[Mirtyanne]

I lived in Johnson County, MO and there is nothing in Johnson County, MO this is KANSAS.

I wish that Wyandotte County, KS would get some good online genealogy going. That county stinks as far as research.

[Amy]

One woman with the help of a few friends has taken on the same work for Clermont County, Ohio. Pam Smith has found (often dug up), photographed, transcribed, and taken GPS coordinates for over 16,000 graves.....maybe more by now! With the help of the webmaster, Don Johnson, they have posted all of these on the Clermont County Genealogical Society website for all researchers to enjoy and download for free. She also compares to earlier transcriptions of the cemeteries and notes any changes or additions. Driving directions are included, too. She has started with the most at-risk graves, so the information will not be lost. This woman has no grant money, just a passion for genealogy and a very generous heart. See her work at www.rootsweb.com/~ohclecgs/ and click on cemeteries.