This project started out with the simple idea of getting a list of the
geographic coordinates for all the cemeteries in Chelsea, so that anyone
in the future could easily find them with the aid of a GPS receiver.
It was soon discovered that some of them were not very easy too get to,
and in one case the cemetery was not even known about until it was brought
to the attention of the town clerk.
There are some type written records available on most of the smaller
cemeteries and individual graves in the area, and it was through these
records that I was able to trace many of the harder ones to find.
While in the process of getting the coordinates for these cemeteries I
also started taking photographs of each one of them for my own records.
I soon realized that with the pictures and the coordinates of each
cemetery I had the main ingredients for a modernized up dated report on
the Cemeteries of Chelsea using the computer and a web browser.
I decided to try and put together a web page that would give the essential
information on each cemetery.
It�s name.
The years that it was in use.
The road that it was located on or near.
And the geographic coordinates in both UTM (universal transverse
mercator) and Lat/Long (latitude & longitude).
I also listed the names and dates off of some of the older stones in each
cemetery. In the case of individual graves and small plots I included
the information from previous reports on the names and dates when it was
available.
I also provided maps with the location of each cemetery marked on them.
In order to show the roads that the cemeteries were on I had to split the
town up into two sections. The first map at the top of the page gives an
overall view of the town without roads. The other two maps cover the east
hill side of town and the west hill side with roads shown.
It was impossible to label all the roads on these maps without crowding
and covering up the cemetery labels, so I made a completely separate web
page on just the town roads themselves.
Both pages are linked through a separate menu page.
I would like to thank all the people who helped me with this project
in finding some of the more difficult cemeteries.
Diane Mattoon, the town clerk of Chelsea, was especially helpful in
providing town records and directions to some of the smaller plots.
Rhoda Ackerman for information on the original Gilman grave site.
Ernie Russell for information on some of the wording used on old
grave stones.
I would also like to thank all the folks that did the initial ground
work in finding these old cemeteries and grave sites in the past,
as it made my efforts much easier.
And in turn if my updated report on the Cemeteries of Chelsea using the
computer and web graphics can be of help to someone in the future, it will
have been well worth all the effort that was put into it.
Robert S. Boyce
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