City Installs New Web-based Tool for Cemetery Records

Mentor residents who plan to do research on their family history now have access to a new Web-based tool that can make it easier.

Last week, the city of Mentor installed a new software system that will enable anyone to review records of the Mentor Cemetery.

The 60-acre cemetery on Hopkins Road has 14,000 gravesites. The first person to be buried at the cemetery was Amasa Cobb back in 1855. About 20 acres of the cemetery have yet to be developed for burial plots.

"We get quite a few calls from people who are looking for information on birth dates, death dates or are just checking to see if a person is buried in the cemetery," said Laura Trost, Mentor's cemetery clerk and administrative secretary of the city's parks, recreation and public facilities department.

The new, Windows-based software program enables anyone to look up names of individuals who have been buried at the cemetery. In addition to the name, the software program will provide the person's date of birth, date of death, the place of death (if known) date of internment, the location of the gravesite and the funeral home (if known).

"The software also has a map icon that users can click on and get an overall map of the cemetery and print it," Trost explained. "Users can also map a specific section of the cemetery that will give them more details about the lot locations they are searching for and print it out."

The city's information technology staff upgraded and installed the new software program in cooperation with Legacy Mark, which provides modular software solutions to help cemeteries with office management, accounting and mapping.

"We hope our residents will find this feature of benefit," said Bob Martin, director of Mentor's parks, recreation and public facilities. "As always, we are constantly looking for solutions that provide value and more efficient service to our residents."