Maple Grove Cemetery
Maple Grove Cemetery in Free Soil Township, Mason County, Michigan is roughly six acres and contains 2,700 graves. After experiencing a fire in the early 1980s, the township has been looking to modernize and preserve their cemetery database and find a way to streamline their record keeping while providing the public with access to grave locations and information. After the fire, township staff recreated as much of the cemetery records and drawings as possible by performing a heads-up inventory of the cemetery’s headstones.
Supplied with all of the existing paper data, a master cemetery database was created. The data was cleaned up and duplicate records and gaps in data were noted and corrected. With the database created, the initial layout of the cemetery was created using ESRI ArcGIS software. Map layers were created to show the main cemetery boundary, and the cemetery’s additions, lots and each individual grave, along with the cemetery roads.
Using the digitized database and initial maps, the groundwork of verifying the location and data from the headstones and other markers is completed and extensive notes are made for corrections and discrepancies found from the original township data. The township also requested that pictures be taken of all of the headstones and incorporated into the online map.
With the data and pictures gathered in the cemetery, the maps were finalized, the data cleaned up and the final maps reviewed and approved by the township and cemetery officials. The completed incorporated database and maps are provided to the township in digital and paper formats. Finally, an interactive on-line map was created that can be used by the township and the public to search for and locate individual graves and view headstones and information of the departed.
The Free Soil Township Cemetery Map was created by the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission’s GIS Program for Free Soil Township, Mason County, Michigan. The online cemetery map is hosted by WMSRDC’s ESRI ArcOnline. All cemetery data and shapefiles are the property of Free Soil Township. Created in Spring 2023 and maintained by WMSRDC. To learn more about WMSRDC’s GIS Services visit www.WMSRDC.org