By Tish Rodriguez, San Antonio East Stake Young Women counselor, and Marci McPhee, San Antonio East Stake Just Serve Specialist
The Holy Spirit and the spirits of the dead? It proved to be a perfect combination for the youth of San Antonio East and Pecan Valley Stakes. Recently they had a spiritual experience, literally, as they went to various cemeteries throughout the city of San Antonio. The youth and their leaders took pictures of tombstones and grave markers to be recorded digitally on Billion Graves. With the phone app, pictures of headstones along with the coordinates for its location are uploaded to the Billion Graves website. The pictures and location are then available to those searching for a particular family member’s grave. The youth had the option to transcribe these markers onsite, or just take the photos and transcribe at a later time.
Initially, this activity was to take place at the Ft. Sam National Cemetery, which could have accommodated the entire group. But at the last minute, COVID precluded a gathering of this size. Sister Welch of the Pecan Valley Stake was not about to give up on this wonderful project. She and her presidency did some fast work in locating several cemeteries in downtown San Antonio which needed to have headstones photographed. They divided up the territories so that the youth volunteers could all work “together” (in groups of ten). Welch and other leaders mapped out the assignments and directed the work. Twelve groups of youth photographed graves in Agudas Achim Cemetery, Alamo Masonic Lodge Cemetery, Anchor Masonic Cemetery, City Cemeteries #1, #2, #3, and #5, Emanuel German Lutheran Cemetery, Hermann Sons Cemetery, Old St John Lutheran Cemetery, St John’s Lutheran Cemetery, St. Michaels Polish Cemetery, and Temple Beth-El Cemetery.
One of the youth commented that it was “so cool to see families grouped together” they liked the fact that even the babies that had died in infancy were buried by their mother, “so she could still take care of them.”
Thanks to these stalwart youth, headstones at most of San Antonio’s city cemeteries have been captured. The information provided is now available for those throughout the world who may be searching for information regarding their loved ones.