Brownsville, TX (KRGV) — Finding a loved one’s gravesite at the Old City Cemetery in Brownsville is not always easy. The cemetery has thousands of plots and many damaged headstones. 

“I have family buried out here that we haven't been able to find,” Valerie Garza said.

Garza’s grandpa and uncle are buried somewhere in the cemetery, located at 955 E. 5th Street. She said they died in the '80s, and her family lost track of them over the years. 

“It is a little difficult. There is no map of the area or anything publicly available, so it is just walking around and trying to find a name, but there are thousands of plots here, so it is difficult to pinpoint an area,” Garza said. “We lose that piece of history within our own families. Not in general or in the grand scheme of things, but in our personal lives, there is that piece of our family missing, and so being able to find it completes the puzzle."

Brownsville is working to change that by creating a digital map for Old City Cemetery that will let people find burial plots using their phones.

Garza started searching for her relatives 10 years ago and is now helping the city with the project. She now volunteers by taking pictures of headstones, verifying burial information, and updating city records. 

The goal is to help families like hers find their loved ones more easily. 

“I think it would be a little bit of a relief being able to find them, and it allows our family to be able to pay our respects,” Garza said.

Joshua Gutierrez, records and information management coordinator for the city of Brownsville, is leading the effort. 

"There was a need from the citizens who were coming in, and then a lot of them, sometimes too, were coming in from out of state or outside the city of Brownsville, and so it was now or never kind of a scenario," Gutierrez said.

The cemetery dates back to 1850 and is the final resting place of historical figures like William Neale, who is recognized as a former Brownsville mayor and one of the city’s oldest inhabitants in the 1800s.

The number of people buried at the cemetery is uncertain.

“It could be anywhere from about 7,000 to even about 30,000 people,” Gutierrez said.

The city says the project is about 50% complete and hopes to launch the digital map by late December or early January on the city’s website.

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