Published: May 16, 2008 07:25 pm         

Tracking Logansport’s lineage

New Web system allows full access to cemetery records

What started as an idea to improve efficiency in the cemetery department has now grown into a plan that will change how people access information about Logansport’s cemeteries.

The city this week launched a new program on its Web site that includes extensive information about burials at Mount Hope Cemetery. Some limited information is also available for Ninth Street Cemetery.

Sherry Hood, president of Pontem Software that designed the program, visited Logansport from the company’s base in Eaton Rapids, Mich., and met with members of the Logansport information technology committee to help launch the system.

“It’s been so refreshing to work with your city just because of your vision,” she told committee members. “Your initiative to go online with this information, I think, is just great. ... This is public information, but you were keeping the records hidden in drawers for years. Now this lets people access these records.”

Cemetery Sexton Mike Nicoll began exploring options to update the existing system last August. The 55,000 grave site records from the 70-acre Mount Hope Cemetery were stored on a single computer system that could not be converted even to a different computer. Though additional paper records are kept in books and on maps in the cemetery office, Nicoll said he was concerned that the cemetery would lose the information with a system crash.

“We knew we needed to replace the old system,” he said, adding that the existing electronic system used first generation software from the early 1990s.

Nicoll and the rest of the IT committee began working with Pontem Software in January. The company specializes in working with municipalities to establish similar systems not only for cemetery use but also for tax purposes.

Logansport spent $41,200 to convert the maps and grave site records and to launch the new system. There will also be a $6,000 annual maintenance fee, which includes system upgrades from Pontem Software.

“You’re not going to find a better return for your money,” said Clerk-Treasurer Ruth Ellen Bland, who is also a member of the IT committee.

Bland said the system was established to improve the efficiency of the cemetery department by reducing the time spent looking through paper archives.

The system allows city employees to access records about a particular grave by owner, occupant, status and type of burial. It can also be upgraded to include information on purchase plan, care plan, monument and inscription information.

“You’ve come a long way to be where you are today,” Hood told the committee. “Now we can take a look at where you’re at in terms of automation and help you improve it.”

Using this information, the system can map the cemetery based on those criteria and even generate custom deeds for plot sales. The maps also have a tool to measure from a specific grave site to landmarks in the cemetery to help people locate the plots.

By accessing the cemetery department Web site on the city’s home page, www.cityoflogansport.org, the public also has access to burial information and maps of the 150-year-old Mount Hope Cemetery.

“The general public will be able to access this really, really easily,” said Nicoll. “They can look at the GIS maps and find exactly where their loved one is before they come to the cemetery.”

Though the available records are also online for the Ninth Street Cemetery, Nicoll said there is no map of the site because the information was incomplete.

While the information in the system is limited at this point, Hood said friends and family members of those buried at the cemeteries have the opportunity to submit an online form to help the city fill in some of those holes.

Still, Bland said the system will help people in genealogy searches or those just planning to visit the cemetery.

“We have to have a base, and this is our base,” said Bland.

Carla Knapp can be contacted at (574) 732-5150 or via e-mail at carla.knapp@pharostribune.com