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. 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 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
Now, if they could only spell "cemetery" properly on the web site!
