People all have come across cemeteries that are in a compromised state and where it is not clear who has been buried there. Even if you personally visited a graveyard that was developed fairly recently, you might have observed that the identification of graves is uncertain. But nowadays, cemetery mapping services have evolved and made the identification and mapping of the graves much easier.

Cemetery data spread out between spreadsheets, handwritten and typed books, and coffee-stained maps paint a very real picture of many communities. The effects of disjointed data can cause headaches for caretakers and even frustration for the public. Some cemetery caretakers have invested in consolidating their records but still can’t visualize them on a map.

There are many challenges that come with effectively operating a cemetery, and data is one of the biggest. If you have been working towards modernizing your historic records, you already know that it could take you years to do so on your own.

1. Why GPR cemetery mapping?

In cemeteries across the United States, there are the “forgotten” burials of unmarked and lost graves. This is usually a byproduct of fallen and/or relocated grave markers, though in some cases there may never have been a stone or other marker. Unmarked graves are also common to historical landscapes, battlefields, and crime scenes. Geophysical techniques, such as GPR, are needed to non-destructively locate these burials in cemeteries and in other locations.

GPR cemetery mapping technicians typically look for grave shafts that are visualized as hyperbolic targets suggestive of coffins or vaults.  Every cemetery is different, and local environmental and soil conditions need to be considered when conducting GPR cemetery mapping.

2. Benefits of a modern…