Youth in the Washington, D.C. Stake recently participated in an amazing service project that is particularly meaningful in light of Memorial Day. Here is how it was described in a recent social media post from the Stake:
A Washington, D.C. Stake young woman has organized a large scale service project benefitting BillionGraves and by extension its partners FamilySearch, MyHeritage and Findmypast. Brooke and her team of youth, parents and leaders recently photographed 5,488 headstones at Arlington National Cemetery, a public cemetery, in areas not yet collected for BillionGraves’ free GPS cemetery index.
Now this team of volunteers is transcribing (indexing) the information from the headstones to make them searchable online for those looking for their ancestors. Volunteers feel it is an honor to participate in this project for relatives of deceased Americans who served and sacrificed for their county. Brooke will earn her Girl Scout Gold Award upon completion.
It is stunning that this group of youth were able to make such a significant impact in photographing and working toward cataloguing more than 5,000 graves. It is an important reminder that each of the individuals represented by those headstones truly matters and it is this unique family history service project that will make their names more accessible to those that can’t visit the cemetery in person.
Special thanks to RoseMarie Briggs for bringing this project to our attention.