New App Helps Navigate Cookeville Cemetery

A new, updated app providing more accurate information to families and residents interested in the Cookeville City Cemetery.

The city hired its first GIS Intern this year. Jennifer Nwafor spearheaded the project. Nwafor said she was initially employed to add photos of each gravestone to the app, but in doing this she found it needed major updates. Nwafor said the new version will be especially useful for those who can not make it to the gravesite physically.

“You must not be in Cookeville, you can be in Texas, even in another country and you can just search for family’s name, you’ll see the persons gravestone,” Nwafor said. “So the whole community will benefit from this archive.”

With the updated app, users will be able to use GPS capabilities to find graves, using more exact technology. It will also have routinely updated images of each gravestone, veteran recognition, and locate plots currently available for purchase.

Cookeville City Cemetery has more than 6,000 graves. Nwafor input images and more detailed information on those buried in the cemetery for more accuracy.

“It had a web application that had people’s names or name, but this is a better version which now includes images of the gravestones and then I also did something for veterans, all the people who served in the military for the US,” Nwafor said.

Nwafor said the new app will highlight everyone who has served in the U.S military and exactly what conflict they served in.

Nwafor said she has already had people who thanked her for her work on this application. She said she saw how much people appreciate being able to learn their genealogy and connect their family tree.

“Cemeteries are not something to be afraid of, you know, because during my time there I saw family members, they come every day, they sit down at the cemetery, they clean it,” Nwafor said. “So cemeteries, I feel like are a huge part of our lives that we should not ignore.”