LEWISBURG — If you were in the area of Yell Road in Lewisburg last week, you may have seen drones flying over Sunset Park cemetery, but there is no need to worry as the drones were surveying the grounds for the new digital mapping software that the cemetery will be utilizing moving forward. 

Sunset Park is the first cemetery in Tennessee to implement the software designed by PlotBox, a global leader in deathcare management software solutions based in Northern Ireland with teams across the United States and Australia. 

PlotBox works in partnership with cemeteries, crematories, and funeral homes to provide a deathcare management solution that best fits the needs of the cemetery. 

“PlotBox is a single digital platform that centralizes all of a cemetery's essential functions - including all of their operational and sales data, deceased records, teams and tasks - all of which is backed up securely and accessible from anywhere at any time,” Plotbox Senior Project and Process Improvement Manager Katie Stanley said

With the new software, current and future plot owners will be able to locate and navigate their way to plots with ease using the Everafter website and app which operates similar to the Global Positioning System (GPS). 

“Everafter allows us for a more streamlined experience when attending cemeteries in person - locating the graves of loved ones isn’t always easy - this allows them to either look up the location of their loved one before visiting, or when on site, be guided by staff using Everafter’s ‘walk to grave’ app via a tablet device,” Stanley said. 

Stanley added that the software can be used as a genealogical research tool for anyone seeking to trace the history of the area or historical figures as well as for families to trace the branches of their family tree. 

To do so, anyone can use the Everafter website (discovereverafter.com) search engine to locate plots with a surname, deceased date, or estimated age at time of death among many other filters. 

“Those interested in tracing the area’s history can search for persons of interest who are buried within the cemeteries, and similarly, those wanting to trace their own family tree can do the same,” Stanley said. 

The software upgrade will eventually eliminate the need for paper mapping and records at Sunset Park once the process is finished, and comes to the cemetery as an initiative by Anthem Partners – the company that quietly oversees operations at the cemetery – to provide a more accessible and user-friendly experience when navigating the grounds. 

Anthem Partners oversees the operations of three other cemeteries across the state of Tennessee and will be utilizing PlotBox at those locations in the future as well. 

Kevin Krizak, Vice President of Sales for Anthem Partners, was at the forefront of having PlotBox implemented at the various locations, and is excited for families to be able to use the software. 

“I’m excited for the software and PlotBox to be implemented at Sunset Park because it really does make everything easier for the cemetery operations, but for the families that have plots located there as well,” Krizak said. 

PlotBox is set to be finished with their portion of the process in mid-August, but the project won’t be fully finished for another year or two as Anthem Partners will be reaching out over time to plot owners to go over and confirm records as accuracy of those is important.