Denton Community Unites to Digitize Graveyards

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were among over a hundred volunteers from the Denton, Texas, community who participated in a Keep Denton Beautiful (KDB) service project aimed at digitizing graveyard information.

In the city of Denton, there are around 10,000 graves across two cemeteries that needed digitizing. On October 30th, various community members embarked on this huge task, starting in IOOF Cemetery located at 711 S Carroll Blvd, Denton, TX. Each grave’s information took 2-3 minutes to record with an app called Survey123.

Two weeks later, on November 13^th, the volunteers descended on Oakwood Cemetery located at 747 E Prairie St in Denton. “This was a much smaller cemetery,” reported volunteer Robbie Evans, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ. “They had pictures of people on the stones.”

KDB is a non-profit working in tandem with the City of Denton Parks and Recreation Department and with which the Church of Jesus Christ has had a long-time working relationship. This project’s purpose was to help make the data more accessible to those trying to find and understand their roots, honor those who have come before, and help improve and beautify the city.

All 10,000 graves were successfully digitized. After a review of the information, it will be available to the public on the City of Denton Parks and Recreation website.

Photos by Elise Stolle.