Bee County (KIII News) — Two women are doing their part in Bee County to make sure their ancestors won't be forgotten; but at the same time they are trying to keep track of every gravesite in the county.
Sylvia Garcia Smith takes pictures of every headstone inside a graveyard in Pawnee, Texas. She was searching for the headstone of her great-grandmother, Maria Garcia, who died in 1934.
"This cemetery wasn't even on Find-a-Grave until about three days ago," Smith said.
Smith knows that her great-grandmother was a midwife and faith healer who would go to area ranches and assist women during childbirth, but as far as where she is buried, that's a mystery. There are no surviving cemetery maps and online websites have no information.
"None of these people are in there. For all I know that might be my great-grandmother. One of these graves might be my great-grandmother," Smith said.
"I don't know what it is about the dead that draws me to it," said Kay Mix, President of the Beeville Cemetery Association.
3News met with Mix at the Evergreen Cemetery, which is the oldest burial site in Beeville, Texas. According to Mix, it's a tough job trying to maintain old cemeteries like the one in Pawnee, which holds the remains of the pioneers of the area.
While many headstones clearly show who is buried where, there are many graves that are missing a headstone for a number of reasons. Mix is urging people to go to online sites like Findagrave.com and Ancestry.com to help researchers in their quest to identify the dead and find out where they may lie.
Mix said these sites allow people to enter information about their loved ones and ask that people in the area go and take pictures of the tombstone they are looking for.
Smith plans to load all of her pictures onto Find-a-Grave. She then hopes someone will eventually help her find her great grandmother's grave.
"I want to get a little plaque and just put it out here so I know she's here," Smith said.
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