This site came about as a result of our
fascination with the cemeteries and the old stones in Portland,
Maine. We tour the cemeteries and photograph the stones,
and we needed a place to store and catalog the photos.
I have lived in Portland, Maine all
my life, and my relatives are from the area, but information
is difficult to find on the Internet when doing a family
tree. I have found a lot of info about larger towns, but
this small
town seems to go unnoticed by the Internet community as far
as the history is concerned.
My wife and I fell in love with the Evergreen
cemetery during our walks around it. The stones, ponds and
trees, make it seem more like a walk in a European Garden
than a final resting place. The snapping turtles and ducks
in the ponds have held my children's fascination for many
years.To me, It was only natural to begin to photograph the
stones.
Where the info comes from
The records for the Eastern and Western
Cemeteries were scanned from typed manuals transcribed from
original burial records by William Jordan in the 1980s. I
used OCR scanning and electronic sorting to begin with. The
records
were then
sorted
by hand
into an access database. The mistakes that are in the records
are the result of the scanning techniques. I continue to
correct the mistakes and add to the records.
Other records were added on a stone by stone basis. I went
to many cemeteries and photographed the stones and took notes
as I went.
Searches can be made on, last name, first
name, and Notes that were in the original
burial records. This format allows for quicker identification
and serves as a way to catalog the photographs.
