GALVESTON — The city of Galveston launched an online tool to search cemetery records. The database maps more than 18,000 gravesites across six city-owned cemeteries and identifies more than 10,000 individuals.

The city of Galveston and its Geographic Information Systems team spent three years digitizing and verifying the cemetery records. These records were previously stored in handwritten ledgers and historical documents. The tool is designed to help families, historians, researchers, and genealogists locate gravesites.

"Some of the headstones are very hard to read," said Jennifer Reynolds, a city spokeswoman. "They date back to the mid-1800s, and in some cases the early 1800s." She added that salt air and weather have worn the markers away over time. "Storms and the grade raising have also played some issues with knowing where everybody is," she said.

The tool is accessible via the GIS maps section of galvestontx.gov. She provided instructions on how to navigate the digital platform from the main municipal website. "From the city’s main website, galvestontx.gov, it’s right here under GIS maps," she said.

"You click on that, and it takes you to the GIS hub." Users can search for specific individuals to find their burial locations. "If you type in a person’s name — John Sealy, for example — it will take you to the gravesite," she said. Once a record is selected, the system displays detailed biographical data. "If you click on the name, it comes up with the person’s full name, age at the time of death, birth date, death date, and where they are located," she said.

Historian Carlton Houston commented on the utility of the new digital resource for those tracing their lineage. "We are seeing more people who may have always been curious about their ancestors and their family story but didn’t have the means actually to do their research," Houston said. He noted that the digital format removes barriers for individuals who no longer live in the area.

"The technology is making that so much more accessible," Houston said. "My family roots are in Texas, but we’ve scattered to both coasts of America and beyond — and so to be able to do that type of search from a distance is a game changer," he added.

The transition from handwritten ledgers to a searchable online database addresses physical deterioration and logistical challenges associated with maintaining historical burial records. Environmental factors such as salt air, weather, and storms have contributed to the erosion of headstones, while grade raising projects have complicated the physical location of graves. By centralizing this information, the city provides a permanent, accessible record for individuals who cannot visit the sites in person.

The project required a three-year commitment from the city and its Geographic Information Systems team to verify and map the data. The resulting tool serves genealogists, historians, and family members seeking to connect with their ancestry without the need for physical presence or access to fragile historical documents.