Historic cemetery with missing records put on map

OXFORD, Ohio — Families trying to find their ancestors will now have a new way to do so after a cemetery project. Teachers used digital mapping to improve a cemetery with lacking records.

Mike Green and his team know how to keep the historic Oxford Cemetery from becoming overgrown, but what he didn't know was exactly where all the graves were located.

“When people come to look, it’s this (outdated map) that I have to show them, but then they’re like, Okay, where does this road lead?,” Green said.

He said for years the cemetery had relied on outdated maps, missing records and on several occasions said directing someone was just a guess.

“Where is this road?” And it's like, oh, the roads aren't there. I think back then those were old routes that they used to access the section,” Green said.

Robbyn Abbitt, associate director of the Geo Spacial Analysis Center at Miami University in Oxford, decided to change that.

“We're using this (outdated map) to try to figure out, because in each of these boxes here, these lots in these parcels,” Abbitt said.

She said she and her students found tombstones dating back to 1817, some without any trace.

“It could be someone else they're related to or someone they know who bought the land that's buried there,” Abbitt said.

That's why they put them on the map. They added thousands of headstones to a new digital map.

“So we took these maps and we did a process called georeferencing to try to determine: OK, this place belongs here on the ground. So that's where this part of this map should be to try to give the city an idea of ​​where all these parcels are, where some of the boundaries might be,” Abbitt said .

This is an effort to connect families with their ancestors who may be in this historic cemetery.

“When you spend hours and hours weeding and you look at each headstone as you drive past, it's amazing to see the names you recognize, and it's even better when they have questions about the whereabouts of their relatives. You can give them an answer now,” Green said.

Abbitt said the digital map is available online for anyone who thinks they have a connection to the historic cemetery. They also added where veterans are located on digital maps.