I'll be the first to admit that I lag behind many others who are on top of technology and its advancements with "Smartphones," and "QR Codes," and whatever else is 'out there' that I don't even know about!
Like anything else, these "modern marvels" many of us just can't live without have their place and purpose. However, truly, only time will tell how important of a role they will play some 25, 50, or 100 years from now when it comes to grave sites and cemeteries. Unfortunately, many of us will not be here to witness the outcome.
Some choices for grave marker materials, like white marble for example, probably seemed like smart ones at the time back in the 1860s. However, after a century and a half, we see that perhaps our ancestors might have been smarter to stay with stone materials that we see have withstood the ravages of time a bit better. I do feel the "white bronze" monuments and markers were improvements, and I am pleased to still see so many of them in Ohio's cemeteries today.
So it will be for the success or failure for such technological advancements coming along as family history "medallions" and "QR Codes" on gravestones.
Nor will we be here to see if using certain new preservation products that we sprayed and "scrubbed" on grave markers helped or harmed them by the time the next century rolls around. But, we can look forward to more advancements and hope our technology serves us well through the Twenty-First Century and well beyond.
So, with these thoughts in mind, I will devote this post to the website "webCemeteries.com." To learn more about its purpose, I invite readers to explore website links offered including: "Search Cemeteries" which includes some Ohio cemeteries categorized in ranges from 50,000 burials and above to 3,000 to 9,999 burials as well as a category called "American Legacy Cemeteries." I clicked on some of the cemetery website links, however, I was not taken directly to some of the websites, yet others seemed to work okay. Thus, I can only deduct the website isn't fully operational yet. I'll revisit this website in the future to see if more links are working.
I wonder what "Smartphone" version will be on the market in 2512? Will this device as we know it even exist? What I can say we do know is that we must work to preserve Ohio's grave sites and the histories of the lives they hold in a respectful manner that ensures future generations will see and understand the pride we took in this process; that they too must promise to pass on.
