BY LOREEN BERLIN: Documenting and preserving cemetery records is the Eagle Scout Project of Garden Grove resident Michael Stoughton.
Saturday, April 23, Stoughton, his Troop No. 225, friends and family joined him at Garden Grove's Magnolia Memorial Park, 12241 Magnolia St., to begin the process of photographing headstones, to preserve the information into the billiongraves.com website for future generations.
BY LOREEN BERLIN: Documenting and preserving cemetery records is the Eagle Scout Project of Garden Grove resident Michael Stoughton.
Saturday, April 23, Stoughton, his Troop No. 225, friends and family joined him at Garden Grove's Magnolia Memorial Park, 12241 Magnolia St., to begin the process of photographing headstones, to preserve the information into the billiongraves.com website for future generations.
This cemetery is unique, as it has 3,800-plus standing headstones (some are flat), something cemeteries today don't allow unless they are privately owned. It's a quiet and serene location off busy Magnolia Street where time seems to stop in the stillness.
Founded in 1874, it was formerly operated by the Orange County Cemetery District; sold in 1994, it's operated by the Omega Society Inc., of Santa Ana and contains some of Orange County's early pioneers and Civil War veterans.
It's that early history Stoughton is seeking to preserve with the help of modern-day technology of smart-phones, laptops and WiFi hotspots, along with iPhones/iPads and Android cell phones, all linking to a greater data base for use in locating one's ancestral background — free to the public and the community at large.
Stoughton is a member of the LDS Church, Stanton Ward, whose mission is to connect everyone to their ancestors.
"My church focuses on family history and so I thought it would be important to our history and the people who are struggling to find their ancestors to record their history," said Stoughton. "It was difficult to find a cemetery that wasn't mostly completed with digital recording their history. Some of my friends' ancestors are buried here in the Magnolia Memorial Park and so I thought it would be neat to come here to record these graves and help them."
Stoughton said his Scout troop, friends and family planned to record nearly 300 graves on Saturday. He estimated that would take about two hours to clean each grave, pull weeds and take pictures of the headstones and upload them, with additional time for recording back at the Valley View Ward in Garden Grove, where some Scout leaders were onsite for the project and would link the new photos to the website.
Stoughton said he and his mother, Gina Stoughton, first went to the cemetery to test the online application for recording the history and see how it would work. After they talked to the on-site staff and looked around, he said he thought it was nice to see the history and read some of the headstones, noting how the people buried there had lived.
After Stoughton's project is completed, he has two more merit badges of Family Life and Personal Management to work for before he is awarded the Eagle Scout honor.
"There are 22 required badges for an Eagle award, with more than 100 to chose from," he said.
Asked if he had a favorite badge he had completed, he said, "They were all fun but life-saving and canoeing were especially fun."
Two young people helping with the process Saturday, Lily Nguyen and Emily Duong, while cleaning a headstone realized they were born the same year as the person in the gravesite and that they would have graduated with them this year, had that person have lived.
The young ladies shared that they felt a reverence and connection with the person and said it was a sobering experience.
"We both experienced the importance of connecting with your past," they said.
Shane Flak and Cera Thompson, also helpers, found it interesting to learn about Civil War veterans.
"I read about each of the veterans' lives and their reasons for joining the Civil War; it was moving to understand what they went through and how they eventually ended up in Orange County, said Flak. "This cemetery has 16 Civil War veterans and some of them have a QR Code on the headstone (that can be scanned into a smart phone) that lists a biography about the soldier."
The Civil War veterans link is: http://www.magnoliamemorial.org/civil-war-veterans/ (The online article mentions the cemetery has 10 veterans, but updated paperwork shows there are 16 veterans in the Magnolia Cemetery).
On Memorial Day of each year, Magnolia Cemetery holds a memorial service open to the public, followed by a barbecue for those in attendance.
