VIDEO: Cemetery Info Available For First Time Ever

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — Columbus’ Friendship Cemetery has been around since 1849, and the information on the people buried there has been unknown to families and historians…until now!

City Facilities Manager Mike Anderson has created a database that now includes the name and location of every person buried in the historic cemetery.

The 65-acre graveyard holds 12,841 occupied grave sites and a total of 22,687 grave sites.

For the first time in history, residents can learn the names and location of where their ancestors are buried.

Anderson said all the data was located in outdated computer software and written records, and that it took over 200 hours to organize the information.

“What I did…”, said Anderson, “…was build a Windows based system, compile all the data into a single database, and now it can be researched very easily based on plot number, who’s buried there, who owns it…”

Anderson says the history in the cemetery goes beyond the Civil War, from soldiers from the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, to World War One and Two.

Anderson also found that there are spaces left for families to buy plots.

“We’re running about 56% occupancy…”, said Anderson, “as far as there are a lot of empty grave sites here but they’re not necessarily available for sale…but I did find some that we were unaware of.

“Approximately 70 to 75 grave sites are available for sale in the old section of the cemetery.”

Anderson wants to put the database onto the city’s website for the public to be able to conduct their own research.