Turner Cemetery records posted on worldwide Internet site

Passing by the corner of Roundbunch Road and Morning Glory, you may not have noticed the sign that says “Turner” above the gate.

But if you have continued onto Morning Glory, you will likely have noticed on the left side of the road a small, well-kept cemetery.

Only about half the allotted land is occupied by 62 graves.

Chet Cuccia of Bridge City it one day, and decided to investigate records to see who was buried there.

Cuccia had been accessing the Web site Find-A-Grave.com for about a year and had posted some family members’ gravesites there.

He searched and found no records for Turner Cemetery.

One day he took a pen and pad and recorded names, birth dates and death dates of all 62 graves. He then went home and recorded all of the graves on the site.

By doing that, he made the cemetery available on World Wide Web, which enables anyone to post pictures of the graves or persons buried there.

Cuccia, at his own expense, purchased one-use cameras and photographed all headstones in the cemetery.

“I hope that some family member will find out about this and use the information that I have posted to see where their family members are buried if they are living out of town, or that someone doing genealogy research may find the posted information to be of use,” he said. “This has become a hobby. I have been posting information on Find-A-Grave for over a year. I have worked posting records for several families who have family members buried in several cemeteries. I plan to do some more with some of the older, smaller cemeteries in Orange County.

“When you work in these cemeteries you find out various details about the deceased. I found a Civil War Confederate veteran buried in Turner as well as Roy M. Hatton, [for whom] Hatton Elementary is named after. You never know what you will find. One reason I could do Turner Cemetery is that it is so small. It was nice to be able to do a whole cemetery.”

Cuccia has more than 200 memorials and 361 photographs posted on Find-A-Grave.

If a person finds one of Cuccia’s postings and sees Cuccia’s name underlined, he can click on the link and see personal information about Cuccia.

Interestingly, Cuccia has posted his own burial profile. His death date is listed as “unknown.” Other details are available so that when his time comes, all one will have to do is post the date of his death.

If a family member has a picture of one of the persons buried in the cemetery, they can go to http://www.findagrave.com and click on “Search for a cemetery.” They would then need to enter “Turner” and click on Turner Cemetery, Orange County, Bridge City, Texas.

When the proper persons burial records are found the instructions will tell you how to post the picture or a memorial message.

Any additional information about the burial or the person’s profile will have to be added by Cuccia, since he is the one that made the initial postings.

For more information, e-mail Cuccia at [email protected].