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Sonoma advances cemetery records with GIS mapping project and public site
Summary
The city presented a GIS mapping project for historic cemeteries developed with the Sonoma Valley Historical Society and an intern; council members and historical society leaders praised the tool as a records, planning and public-access improvement.
The Sonoma City Council heard a demonstration on Aug. 6 of a new GIS-based cemetery mapping and records system developed in partnership with the Sonoma Valley Historical Society and an intern position supported by Berea College and the society.
"This is a really, really good way to organize, centralize, secure, and preserve our precious historical data," Carolyn Fulton, the city’s cemetery manager, said during the presentation, describing the project’s value for records management and family searches. Fulton said the tool helps staff respond faster to families and reduces the potential for errors common with paper records.
Intern Aowyn (Eowyn) Medeiros, who led the field survey and database work, demonstrated a public-facing website that shows mapped graves, mausoleums and cemetery features; users can zoom to plots, view photos and search by name. "This is the public facing side of the database," Medeiros said, noting that some private fields remain restricted to city staff and that several records are still being completed.
Council members and historical society officials praised the project. "The amount of progress that has been made even greater than the issues that were addressed in [the grand jury report]," Council member Lowe said, referencing prior reviews of cemetery records and management. Charlotte Galloway, vice president of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society, presented the county Mariano Vallejo government award to the city in recognition of the partnership and the completed work.
Fulton and Medeiros said the system currently covers Mountain Cemetery and is being extended to Valley Cemetery and the veterans’ sections; Medeiros said some historic records remain incomplete and that linking the city’s cemetery records to the searchable system is ongoing. Council members asked about schedule and completeness; Medeiros said the Historic Valley Cemetery had the poorest records and may take longest to finish, but that remaining tasks should be "easily completable."
