June 11, 2008
By Nick Timpe
NEW GENEOLOGY TOOL OFFERED FREE TO CEMETERIES
- Local Company Launches American Legacy Initiative: Offering Free Services to Community Cemeteries -
KUTZTOWN, PA – Today, community cemeteries across the nation will be offered a free solution to some of their most immediate needs: preserving their burial records, allowing the public to search genealogical information, and raising funds for cemetery preservation. webCemeteries.com, a Berks County business, is offering the use of its program free of charge to cemeteries with fewer than 2,000 internments.
“Today, I am excited to announce the launch of the American Legacy Initiative. As this new program takes root across the nation, we are hopeful that the memories and records of men and women across America will be preserved, and that their legacies can be easily found and remembered by members of their communities,” said Eric Robuck, President of webCemeteries.com.
The goal of the American Legacy Initiative is to preserve the legacies of Americans buried in community cemeteries. Often, these cemeteries do not have the finances, staff or technology to preserve their burial records in anything more than a locked up file card system. webCemeteries.com is offering these cemeteries an online database where the public can search the cemetery records to find loved ones, and leave comments and memorials.
“If this Initiative takes off, not only will community members be able to perform genealogical searches on the internet,” said Robuck, “they will be able to leave their comments and condolences about the lives of their family and friends. These websites for local cemeteries can become the new history books for our communities.”
Current users of the program are excited about the potential for the American Legacy Initiative. Tom Roberts of Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh noted that “the webCemeteries.com program certainly warrants investigation for small and large cemeteries. It provides an easy way for accessing your databases and organizing your burial and ownership information.”
The webCemeteries.com program not only opens genealogical information to the public – it also helps cemeteries manage and grow their operations. Users manage their cemeteries online, and choose what information is accessible to the public. Cemeteries using the program find it an excellent tool for increasing public awareness and income. Hope Cemetery in Kutztown, PA gets enough web visitors that they earn more in online advertising than they do in cemetery sales. webCemeteries.com hosts data for cemeteries ranging from 10 to 142,000 graves. These include:
Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA
Berks County Association for Graveyard Preservation
Arlington Cemetery, Drexel Hill, PA
webCemeteries.com is hopeful that as the word spreads about the Initiative, community members will take steps to preserve and memorialize the records of those buried in their local cemeteries.
For more about webCemeteries.com, including a listing of cemeteries, go to www.webCemeteries.com
Contact Nick Timpe for more information: nick.timpe@gmail.com , (610) 451-4362
Cemetery
Web site a tool for research By Erin
Negley, Reading Eagle When Clark D. Frederic of Maxatawny Township was tracing his family roots, he hit an unexpected roadblock. A fire had destroyed the records at a cemetery in Carlisle, Cumberland County, where his great-great-grandfather Adam Frederic was buried in 1882. Frederic, who now supervises a Kutztown cemetery, recalled this personal stumbling block when someone suggested posting the Kutztown cemetery's records on a Web site. On the Internet, a fire couldn't ruin the data chronicling the 3,565 people buried at Hope Cemetery near Saint John's United Church of Christ in the borough. The records went online in November with a Web site featuring a searchable database. Since then, www.webcemeteries.com has recorded thousands of hits, according to Eric A. Robuck of Virginville, the Web site owner and manager. So far, the majority of those hits have come from cemetery staff managing the data, he said. Robuck pitched the computerized database to the Hope Cemetery board of directors in 2000. He was finishing his degree in Web engineering at Kutztown University and wanted something to add to his resume. He's now a software engineer for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. The database replaced thousands of scattered cards that past superintendents kept in the cemetery's mausoleum. The cemetery's oldest grave dates to 1825. “Cemeteries like Hope keep their records on 3-by-5 cards,” Robuck said. “If there's a fire, it's gone. If there's a flood, it's gone. There's no backup. It's gone.” The records database didn't leap to the Internet until Frederic became cemetery superintendent in September. “I thought it was a very good idea,” he said. “I think it's an excellent management tool. You have everything at your fingertips.” Only records for Hope Cemetery are on the site permanently, but Robuck hopes to add more local cemeteries to the online database. St. Paul's Union Cemetery, a secular cemetery on Main Street, Richmond Township, added the burial data to the site while its board considers keeping the information there permanently. Adding more cemeteries would expand the records to genealogy researchers worldwide. Robuck charges Hope Cemetery a monthly fee of a penny per grave $35.65 for programming the Web site and managing the server. He also plans to publish a book listing the people buried in Hope Cemetery to raise money for the nonprofit cemetery. As Robuck's database organized information from Hope Cemetery, he noticed some trends, including that the average age at death for those buried there increased from 25 years in 1830 to 81 years in 2002. “It's pretty neat I think,” he said. “I hope I don't sound too ghoulish.” The Web site also allows visitors to leave comments, memorials or other information about the deceased, Robuck said. “If we get cemeteries doing this, cemeteries can be the new history books,” he said. “People can add information about their loved ones and everyone can read that.” The Berks County Genealogical Society library in Laureldale has some cemetery records on computer databases, but society volunteer Annabelle A. Moyer was unaware of any other local cemeteries with their records on the Internet. “I really think people like to come in and use the hands-on method,” she said, referring to the volumes of information at the library. Contact reporter
Erin Negley at 610-371-5047 or enegley@readingeagle.com. return to webCemeteries.com home ©2006
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