Haines City just finished the massive undertaking of digitizing gravesites in two city-owned cemeteries. The city clerk hopes it’ll make it much easier for family and friends to find their loved ones.

Duane Temple was pleased to learn about the project.

“Good look Haines City. You’re getting something right,” Duane Temple said as he looked up his loved ones' graves online.

Temple comes to Oakland cemetery to visit with his cousin Jonathan Jordan, at least twice a month. Jordan was a rapper known as “JGreen” who was shot and killed back in 2016.

"You know it'll never get any easier," Temple said.

Putting all of the gravesites online is a project Haines City Clerk Linda Bourgeois started two and half years ago, when she took on the position.

"What we did is, we took and we reorganized all of the cemetery records by lot block and space. By doing that we were able to locate who was where. It was a collective effort between all of us to get this done and we're really proud of the work,” said Linda Bourgeois.

She said some of the grave site information was handwritten and dated back to the early 1900’s. She wanted to reorganize the information to make sure it was accurate. With Forest Hill and Oakland cemeteries combined, that's more than ninety five hundred graves her staff had to sort through. The older portion of Oakland cemetery is not included, as the city doesn’t have full ownership of it yet.

The online map and database allows people to search their loved ones last name, and find a map of exactly where the grave or headstone is located in the cemetery.

"It became a trend about two to three years ago. It was really something that most cities felt was beneficial,” said Bourgeois.

With the gravesites now online, city staff said it's now easier to track where veterans are buried.

"We can provide that list of interments to other non-profits who may want to come out and put flags,” said Bourgeois.

The online database also helps the clerk's office make sure its staff isn't selling plots that have already been sold.