The first quarter of 2018 will have multiple recipients and I’m pleased to introduce Vine Lake Preservation Trust as the first.

Vine Lake Preservation Trust is a nonprofit charitable organization promoting appreciation of the cultural, historical, and natural resources in Medfield, Massachusetts’ Vine Lake Cemetery founded in 1651. The Trust maintains an extensive database of persons buried in the four acre Old Section, which is frequently accessed by family historians from across the country researching relatives who earlier resided in the Medfield community. Today the Trust makes available on its website a burial search feature, as well as allowing folks to publish memories of the deceased. They also have a free app available for both Android and Apple users, Vine Lake Cemetery, to assist researchers to locate burial locations using GPS.

The grant will support enhancement of the website search feature and the app with photographs of 18th Century gravestones and their identified carvers. The edited photos will be uploaded from the Trust’s photo database and linked to the corresponding burial sites.

To join me in supporting their efforts, please consider making a donation.

As a reminder, you can apply for a Seton Shields grant here. Don’t miss checking out the cool projects I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to over the years, plus an article that will give you a behind-the-scenes peek into my grants program (and might help you increase your odds of being selected when you apply)!