Featured Cemetery
Wilbraham Town Cemeteries - Wilbraham, Massachusetts
The Town of Wilbraham currently has charge of three cemeteries: Adams, East Wilbraham, and Glendale. Each cemetery was founded in the early 1700s by different churches. In the early 1900s, the churches were unable to support and maintain the cemeteries, and they were turned over to the Town. Somewhere along the way, the records of the cemeteries were either lost or misplaced and are no longer available.
Each of the cemeteries has a plaque with a quote of William Gladstone, a British statesman and four times Prime Minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886 and 1892-94). This plaque is seen by the public upon entering the cemetery and also emphasizes our motto and philosophy.
The Town has three Cemetery Commissioners, each in charge of a cemetery. The records have always been kept in the commissioners’ homes. There was no office space made available at the Town Hall. In the early 1950s, the commissioner of Adams Cemetery, along with his wife, went away for the weekend. When he returned, he found the front steps and the chimney standing—all else was destroyed by fire, including the cemetery records. The commissioner immediately began to reconstruct the records as best he could. Even after this accident, all cemetery records have still been kept in the commissioners’ homes, even to the present time.
The current commissioners saw the need, with the help of an annual Town audit, to preserve the current records. We began searching for a computer program, via internet, that would enable us to have all information in a central location. We now have a room and a computer at the Town Hall. We wanted mapping along with maintaining the database. After evaluating several program companies we came to the conclusion that Ramaker & Associates’ CIMS program was our choice in that they could provide exactly what we were seeking.
When time came for mapping, we provided Ramaker & Associates’ CIMS team with the “maps” – many hand drawn -- we had from which we were working. As each cemetery is configured differently, the CIMS team (especially Rachel) worked hand-in-hand with us in resolving any questions or problems. This portion of the conversion (mapping), which we dreaded, was completed in a relatively short and efficient manner and to our satisfaction.
As each commissioner handles the paperwork and records in a way that is easier to each of us, the CIMS program allows us to enter the data on the computer in a consistent and uniform way and the map is automatically updated. This will be very helpful for the future commissioners. We are not only concerned about ourselves but also those who will come after us.
After we received the program, I was doing some "housekeeping" on the computer with the data at the Town Hall and a gentleman walked in "just to see how everything was going". He asked how we liked the program. As a test he asked if I could find his wife's grave. I entered the last name and the grave appeared on the monitor. He then asked "where in the cemetery is the grave located"? I hit the icon "Show Overview Map" and the grave showed as a red block—indicating the exact location. He was amazed with the speed and accuracy. Later I was amazed to learn that he was initially against the purchase of any cemetery program, but now seems to be a believer.
The greatest feature for us in the CIMS program is the mapping. We have many older occupied graves, but there are still several graves available in the midst them – we are now able to determine exactly where the available graves are. Another great feature is that the program gives the total number of graves as well as the number of graves still available – a feature that is now accurate and one that was a guessing game in the past.
CIMS Display at Wilbraham Town Hall
The argument sometimes heard against computerization is that if the records are not current and accurate you will have "garbage in, garbage out". In our experience, computerization will give you the incentive or "force" you to check your records and even the grave location for accuracy. With older monuments, the longer one waits, the more difficult it will be to read the names, dates and epitaphs. Many of our monuments from the 1700s and 1800s are becoming very difficult to read. If computerization were done fifteen, or even ten years ago, many more monuments could have been read and recorded on paper but are now almost completely unreadable. These monuments are part of the history of your community. My recommendation to any Cemetery Commissioners considering computerizing their database and mapping is that the sooner you computerize, the sooner your records will be brought up-to-date.
If you would like to learn more about the Town of Wilbraham Cemeteries, feel free to visit their web page at http://www.wilbraham-ma.gov/.
Want to know how you can get a website for your cemetery?
Give Ramaker & Associates a call at 800-332-7532 and ask to speak to Brandon.
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