Decatur City unveils searchable Sykes Cemetery map; commission tables release of unmarked-grave data

At a Decatur City Historic Preservation Commission meeting, preservation staff demonstrated a new searchable online map of Magnolia Sykes Cemetery and commissioners debated whether to make ground-penetrating-radar (GPR) findings that indicate unmarked graves publicly available.

Carolyn, a preservation staff member, showed commissioners a public website on the city preservation page that displays cemetery markers and photos. "If you go to the preservation page for the city, you go into the documents section, and you'll see... there's a grading database," she said. She demonstrated a new search function that allows users to type a first or last name and have matching marked graves highlight on the map.

The map published on the city site displays graves with visible markers: yellow dots for reinterred graves and blue dots for burials with markers, and clicking a marker shows attached photos and notes. Carolyn told the commission the state had reacted positively to the tool and "wanted to use it as a model for some of their programs."

Commissioners pressed staff about GPR results showing possible unmarked burials. Carolyn said the city maintains a separate internal map of about 700 graves and ground anomalies discovered by GPR but does not publish…