Unit 8 - The Information Age

Loudoun County's history can be told through its cemeteries, many of them dating to the 18^th and 19^th centuries. My project will be a Loudoun County Historic Cemeteries story map, a website that focuses on 20 cemeteries across the entire geographic area. It should be a way for viewers to find cemeteries easily by address and GPS (or GIS), and have a brief description of why each place is historic, who is buried there, a link to a website if there is one, and a photo. 

Who might be interested in it? Members of the Loudoun County Historic Cemeteries Committee, which encourages the protection and maintenance of cemeteries, and public education about the importance of county cemeteries; other historic preservation groups; cemetery “friends” groups; history buffs; students; and locals and tourists who want to take cemetery tours.  

Loudoun County has almost 180 documented cemeteries, both public and private. This project is just a small number of historic ones chosen for ties to the Civil War, Revolutionary War, famous people, notable events, and unique landscapes or monuments. It is not a comprehensive look at cemeteries but attempts to give a representative sample.

INFORMATION IN LOCAL LIBRARIES

Thomas Balch Library in Loudoun County has a cemetery database with known burials, but it has not been updated in almost 20 years. It also has an index of public and private cemeteries, and about two dozen books on Loudoun cemeteries. The Loudoun public library, as well as public libraries in Prince William and Fairfax counties, has information about cemeteries. A Fairfax County cemetery survey was done almost 20 years ago, the same time that the Balch Library database was created. The Fairfax one (in print form only) is a catalog that does not list individual grave information about the deceased, but rather cemetery names and locations and a few burials. The Loudoun database lists cemetery name and as many burials and facts about the deceased there as can be gleaned from the tombstone, which is much like https://www.findagrave.com . There is a Balch Library Cemetery Collection with photos of varying quality from 1990 to the 2000s, contributed by local cemetery preservation groups. The Library of Congress, Library of Virginia and  National Archives websites have some Loudoun County cemetery information, but nothing that specifically seems useful for this project. Searching these databases for information about individual people may be useful.