Data set profile:

  1. Who is credited as the creator and/or contributors of this data set? Who are they?
    • The Project Coordinators are listed as Rebecca Maloney, National Tombstone Project Coordinator, and Debra Crosby, Tombstone Photo Project Coordinator. Though there isn’t a single person listed as the creator, the contributors are meant to be volunteers, and to donate the data to the USGenWeb Project Archives of their area. The specific tombstone project I looked at was the Upper Sect 101 in Alton Cemetery in Alton, Illinois, which was led by someone named Sue Williams.
  2. What are the sources of their data?
    • The web site lists that the source of the data should be the graveyard/cemetery itself, and should be organized according to the layout or plot of the grave. The site explains that cleaning may need to be done in order to accurately plot. Plotting the graveyard or cemetery might need to be done before transcribing the graves, since not every site will have a layout to use.
  3. Why did they create or compile it?
    • There is a stress on compiling data for preservation purposes, as well as for access, but also as a “tribute to our ancestors.”
  4. How has it been used?
    • It seems as if it is primarily used for genealogical purposes, as well as just for data preservation.
  5. What format is the data set in?
    • It is a raw text file that has tombstones labeled by sect, with all included text (name, birth/death dates, inscriptions) and in some of the files descriptions of the stone or marker.

Data set evaluation:

  1. Take a look at the data itself. How have they structured it? What fields have they chosen? What effect might that have on how it can be used?
    • The data is really just a string of data, seemingly dumped into a text file just going down the line, with the first “column” of data having a number to denote the order in which the graves were plotted, and the second “column” containing information about what the text of the inscription says, and maybe a description of the stone or marker. Since the data only has the two columns, it is a little hard to parse through, and difficult to read since it is a very narrow and long “document.”
  2. Read the creators’ description of the data set. Have they described the choices they made in cleaning the data, and if so, how? What effect might those choices have on the data?
    • There are rules for submitting data files on the Illinois county portal (three links are provided, but they all go to the same page). There are multiple types of data submission forms, depending on the way in which the data is being used, and what is being recorded.
  3. Consider the creators’ identities and goals in creating the data set. How might those things have shaped the data, either intentionally or inadvertently?
    • I think that it is heavily focused on preservation for posterity, which is interesting – I would love to know more about the inception of the site, as it started in 1997, and where the person was located. Culturally speaking, I know that there are a few different communities wherein ancestor and family mapping is really popular (The Church of Latter Day Saints/Mormons chief among them) however this is a project that I’m not super familiar with. I know that there are a few influencers on TikTok whose primary content is restoration of stones in graveyards/cemeteries, and in doing so they often will provide information about the person, and their life and death, should they have it. I think that because the project focuses on data consolidation, unintentionally it removes the data from the people it is intended to preserve, as it doesn’t include anything about their lives.
  4. What would you use this data for?
    • As I mentioned, there are people who volunteer and help to restore and preserve the physical graves, so this information would be helpful long term for keeping record of sites that have deteriorated past reading. I think that this is a helpful project for contextualizing death, as a society that has a hard time reconciling death, as a death avoidant culture.