Meyersdale Library awareded a Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award

We are excited to announce that the Meyersdale Public Library has been chosen to receive a Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award for its Somerset County Cemetery Location Resource Project.

A need existed to provide genealogy patrons with information on the location of cemeteries for which they are searching. No comprehensive source for such information was readily available, especially for older and smaller cemeteries. Creation of a comprehensive and accessible cemetery location resource signals to genealogy researchers that Somerset County is a savvy, helpful and welcoming destination for genealogy researchers. With this purpose in mind, the Meyersdale Public Library initiated the Somerset County Cemetery Location Resource Project. This $30,000, three-year project was financially supported by the Somerset County Tourism Tax Grant and the Somerset County Federated Library System.

The project hired two independent contractors to accomplish the following:

• research available resources pertaining to cemeteries within the county and create a comprehensive list of these cemeteries
• locate all cemeteries which still have identifiable features, to obtain GPS coordinates, photos, and directions from the nearest road
• produce a CD with the GPS coordinates, site photo, and written directions for each located cemetery
• create a county-wide map resource of all cemetery locations using the 1-50,000 USGS maps for the northern and southern parts of the county

Carolyn McKinney did an outstanding job of locating and documenting over 600 cemeteries in the county. She waded through brambles up to her neck and mud up to her knees. She was persistent and very successful in contacting local informants to assist with her searches. She located cemeteries and burial grounds that had been forgotten or overlooked in previous cemetery inventories. The majority of documented cemeteries are the smaller ones, often in obscure locations, from the first century of the county’s history. The sheer number of cemeteries in the county is a testament to the long history of the region’s population.

Barry Christy was equally dedicated and tenacious in working with the data to create a user-friendly, compact and complete resource for the use of genealogy researchers. He transferred the field data gathered by Carolyn to Word documents, and then did a conversion to .PDF format. A CD has been created with cemetery names, locations, photos, driving and walking directions, latitude and longitude coordinates, alternate names if available, and additional comments where provided. The CD has both a comprehensive alphabetical index with links to each cemetery, and an index alphabetized by township. All location information has been verified with Google Earth so that researchers anywhere with access to that program can find any cemetery.

The targeted audience is genealogy researchers with ties to Somerset County. Copies of the CD have been distributed to over 30 appropriate agencies and organizations that have contact with and provide information to genealogy researchers, including the Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds offices, the Chamber of Commerce, and the four libraries and twelve historical societies in the county. A CD has also been sent to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints genealogy collection in Salt Lake City and to the Allen County Public Library genealogy holdings in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Information about the availability of this resource has been provided for appropriate Internet venues such as the home pages of the above-mentioned entities and the Somerset County GenWeb, Pennsylvania GenWeb and USGenWeb host sites. The site administrators for the http://www.usgwarchives.org/pa/somerset/ site have received copies of the CD and will post the content on that website.

Locating and recording data about cemeteries in Somerset County was a project that grew out of the Meyersdale Public Library’s commitment to being an advocate for the importance of preserving community histories and making that information available to the public. We believe that respecting the past can have a powerful, positive impact on the future.

Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Awards

Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Awards continue a tradition held since 1979 whereby excellence in preservation is recognized and honored. The annual awards recognize significant contributions in the field of historic preservation made by both individuals and organizations. Recognition encompasses the categories of preservation initiatives, construction and archaeology projects. Communication Award Somerset County Cemetery Location Resource Project Meyersdale Public Library, Somerset County