LDS Youth Participate in BillionGraves Project
Janene Nielsen
A quiet country cemetery in Krum, Texas, is an odd place to encounter over a hundred teenagers on a beautiful autumn afternoon full of possibilities. But that’s just what happened October 17, 2015, when Denton County youth from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints descended on Krum Jackson Cemetery to take part in a service project benefiting the genealogy website BillionGraves.com.
By photographing and uploading nearly 1,800 images of tombstones, some dating back to the early 19th century, the teens became part of a global effort to document and geo-locate every tombstone in the world. Armed with only their cell phones, after having downloaded the BillionGraves app, the teens documented the entire cemetery in an hour and a half, often clearing away brush and debris from the graves to do so.
“This is one of my favorite service projects,” said Cindy Perdue, a sophomore at Krum High School. “I really felt like we were helping people. It was cool using our phones to do service for others.”
These teens aren’t strangers to service, participating in multiple service projects a year, both as a group and individually, but this one had special meaning to them as members of a church noted for its emphasis on family history.
“We all worked together to accomplish a goal. A project like this can help families link to their ancestors,” said Carson Johnson, a sophomore at Krum High School.
“It was wonderful to see the youth’s excitement in the service that was rendered,” said adult leader Kim Coslett. “They understood the purpose and found great joy in serving those who have gone on and providing a great genealogical resource for those of us still here. Testimonies [of the Savior] were strengthened for our youth, no doubt!”
Because of the efforts of these teens, the Krum Jackson cemetery information now available on BillionGraves.com will prove invaluable to future researchers.
“We found an interesting stone for ‘Infant daughter–1920’. It would have made no sense by itself,” said Trey Martino, a young men’s leader, “but we were able to link it to the adjacent grave stone of her mother Lora Yarbrough. Because of this linking, a researcher will be able to see the family this infant daughter belongs to.”
According to USA Today, genealogy is one of the most popular hobbies in America, second only to gardening. No longer necessitating long hours in dusty libraries, anyone with access to a computer can fill out the branches of the old family tree with surprisingly little effort. In addition to BillionGraves.com, there are a host of other databases and websites just a click away, including http://FamilySearch.org, the website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which maintains the largest genealogy library in the world.
Krum-Jackson Cemetery is located at on the northeast corner of FM 156 and Jackson Road in Krum, Texas. To access Krum-Jackson Cemetery on BillionGraves.com click on http://billiongraves.com/pages/cemeteries/Krum-Cemetery/102886#cemeteryid_102886&lim-275&num-25&0rder-asc&action-browse
