City cemetery comes to life with new technology

FALL RIVER – Tens of thousands of handwritten index cards that have recorded the occupants of the historic Oak Grove Cemetery and North Burial Ground for generations are being resurrected into a more modern format.

Stored in file cabinets, each and every card in the old catalog system is being scanned into a digital platform that will soon allow families and researchers to more easily find deceased loved ones and historical figures online. They’ll be able to learn when and where the decedent died and was buried, read an obituary if available and even see a photo of the grave stone.

Besides modernizing the system, Fall River Director of Community Maintenance John Perry said it’s also a way to preserve the city’s history and keep it safe from being lost to time or disaster.

“We’re ensuring the history of the cemetery stays intact for future generations,” Perry said.

The electronic records system will help present generations research their genealogy -- something that cemetery personnel help with on a daily basis.

Chris Parayno, director of Cemeteries and Trees for the city, said the Oak Grove Cemetery office, which also holds the records for the North Burial Ground and several small city cemeteries, gets frequent visitors, calls and emails from people searching their family tree for local ancestors.

“It’ll really come in handy with people doing genealogical research,” Parayno said.

Lizzie Borden was the cemetery’s 26,096th burial in Oak Grove on June 4, 1927. While she’s the most visited occupant of the necropolis, her catalog card is rarely touched. Lizzie is known for being accused of the brutal hatchet murders of her father and step-mother in 1892 Fall River, and according to some, getting away with murder. Her grave has since become a tourist attraction. 

“This was the first time I pulled the card,” Parayno said.

Lizzie was buried in Lot No. 174, but no one really needs that information these days. They can just follow the white arrows from the Gothic entry gates to the Borden family plot.

That’s not the case for others buried in Oak Grove and North Burial Ground.

Every request involves a paper search, first for the decedent’s name, and then for their burial spot. Cemetery staffers often take photos of graves for people and send them the information, or hand it to in-person visitors. The Friends of Oak Grove Cemetery also helps with searches.

No one in the cemetery office minds the task though, that often ends with a smile and thank you from individuals who have just found out an interesting fact about their ancestor.

“It’s really fun for them … and the excitement when they find out,” Perry said.

Oak Grove, Fall River’s largest city cemetery, in particular, has interred residents from all walks of life, from “welfare burials” to mill workers and from veterans to business tycoons to city founders. The famous, the unknown and the infamous share the same 100-plus acre park-like burial ground established in 1855.

“Nearly everyone in Fall River has a connection to this cemetery,” Perry said.

When Oak Grove opened, some families even moved their deceased loved ones there from the North Burial Ground because of the “new” cemetery’s grandeur and beauty.

The North Burial Ground was purchased by the city in 1825, according to “The History of Fall River,” compiled for the Cotton Centennial in 1911, by Henry M. Fenner. The paper said the city offered a free hearse to the public that was stationed in a “hearse house” on the west side of North Main Street, just north of Brownell Street, until the early 1900s.

Bradford Matthew Chaloner Durfee, the high school’s namesake, was buried at Oak Grove in 1872, as was city mayor and U.S. congressman Dr. Robert T. Davis in 1906. Actress Cornelia Otis Skinner was buried in Oak Grove in 1979, along with murder victim and factory worker Sarah M. Cornell in 1832 – likely one of those moved to the new cemetery at some point.

The new digital cemetery search, created by Legacy Mark, involved not only scanning in thousands of documents, but taking drone footage for plotting purposes and grave images.

Perry said the process began in 2016 and is in its final stages, with just five lots left to be digitized at Oak Grove.

Perry got approval last week from the Board of Park Commissioners to transfer $37,500 from the sale of burials account to pay for the last leg of the project. In total, the digitization of city cemeteries will cost $110,000.

The sale of burials account totals $308,000 in available funds. There is $1.6 million in the perpetual care account – some of which will eventually used to expand the cemetery. The old North Burial Ground has its own perpetual care account with $94,000.

Perry said the cost to maintain the digital cemetery system that will consist of an online public platform and a behind-the-scenes city platform, will be minimal – about $1,000 to $1,200 each year.

He said they’ll be testing the system in a couple of months, and his hope is that it will be ready for public use by the summer.

“We’re trying to get the cemetery back to where it needs to be,” Perry said. “For a long time, it was overlooked.”

Email Deborah Allard at dallard@heraldnews.com