Every Stone Marks a Life.
Throughout Shady Lane, you may find QR markers beside the graves of people whose stories we have been able to recover. Scan one, take a moment, and meet someone who came before us.
You don't need to know them. You don't need to be related to them.
Just remember them.
It's About Making the People Buried Here Visible Again.
Right now someone seeing a QR marker in the cemetery could easily think, “Oh, that's a code that gives me burial information.” But that's not really what we're building.
The heart of this project is the moment when someone is walking through the cemetery, notices a stone, and stops.
Maybe the stone is beautiful. Maybe it's broken. Maybe there's a child's name on it. Maybe they notice that someone died very young. Maybe there's an unusual inscription. Or maybe there's absolutely nothing remarkable about it.
They scan the little marker.
And instead of seeing a name, two dates, a lot and a grave number, they are introduced to a person.
A Small Marker Opens a Much Bigger Story.
Some of the people you meet here lived extraordinary lives. Others lived quiet ones. Some left behind photographs, newspaper stories and detailed records. For others, we may recover only a few pieces.
Every piece is worth preserving.
A life does not have to be extraordinary to matter.
Do You Recognize a Name?
If you find a family member, friend, neighbor, or someone whose story you know, we invite you to help us preserve more of their life.
Families and community members may be able to provide the pieces that no cemetery record can ever tell us.
As this project grows, we hope these memorials will grow with it—helped by the families and community whose history is represented here.
Every name at Shady Lane belonged to someone who lived a life.
We hope that by preserving what remains—the photographs, the records, the memories and the stories—we can help you know a little more about the person behind the stone.
You don't have to know them.
You don't have to be related to them.
Just remember them.