POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Technology is at the root of a new resource that provides a step-by-step roadmap for how to locate a specific gravesite in Polk County. Haines City Mayor Morris West said his is the first city in the county to offer this resource.

“Haines City commissioners and myself had a vision years ago to come up with a system,” West said. “Now, for example, if someone from New York comes into the area and they don’t know Polk county or the gravesite area they can use this tracker to walk them directly up to where their family member is buried.”

There are several burial plots at Oakland Cemetery in Haines City that don’t have any marks or tombstones to identify who’s buried there. The city's new GPS tracker allows people to scan in a link or input a last name to get exact coordinates for the gravesite.

“A lot of elderly people who have a hard time getting around will really benefit from this,” said West. “There are over 3,000 plots here — some without tombstones, so it can be hard to find who you’re looking for.”

Haines City clerks like Erica Anderson, are to thank for inputting thousands of records into the new GPS database.

“It’s from our internal records — we use our in-house records and we have a database that we store all of this information in,” Anderson said. “A lot of times we hear from family that say (they) know their family member is buried here. We need those people to reach out so we can make sure we have those records.”

Anderson said the city also works closely with funeral homes to update their database on individuals who were buried in the 1800s.

“Our records are very thorough, they’re up to date, our deeds are recorded,” Anderson said. “The families that are buried here, their names and dates of birth are recorded at our clerk of courts. It’s all deeded land so it belongs to families.”

Anyone interested in learning more can visit the Haines City website.