Mount Calvary Burial Record Search

Project overview

Mount Calvary Cemetery Group, serving Cheektowaga, NY since 1859 across multiple cemetery locations, needed a way for families to find exactly where a loved one is buried without a phone call — cemetery, section, lot, and grave or niche location, searchable directly from the website.

I built a dedicated search application against a GitHub-hosted JSON dataset of approximately 87,841 burial records, integrated as a page within the existing Tribute Technology platform rather than as a separate standalone tool.

The challenge

A cemetery with over 165 years of burial history needed to make a very large historical dataset searchable from the website without a slow or overwhelming experience — fast perceived search across tens of thousands of records, clear display of burial-location detail per result, and graceful handling of large result sets for common surnames rather than silently truncating or crashing the page.

The solution

I built a last-name search tool against a GitHub-hosted JSON dataset of roughly 87,841 records. Each result surfaces the deceased's name, date of death, cemetery, section/level, lot/row, grave/niche, and garden/mausoleum. When a search returns a large number of matches — a real search for "Smith" returned 483 results — the interface caps the display at the first 100 and shows a clear "Showing the first 100 results of 483. Please refine your search if needed" prompt, rather than rendering everything at once or hiding the true total.

My contribution

I prepared and structured the burial-record data as JSON, hosted and maintained the JSON file through GitHub, wrote the JavaScript that fetches and loads that data into the browser, built the last-name search and results-rendering functionality, integrated the search experience into the existing Tribute Technology website, and tested the interface and data presentation before production use. Completed in my role as Web/Digital Designer at Tribute Technology.

Design approach

The interface leads with a photographic cemetery hero image and a serif display headline ("Search Burial Records") consistent with Tribute Technology's broader design language, then drops into a plain, single-field search card: one last-name input, one search button, and a visible "Database loaded. 87,841 searchable records available." confirmation that builds transparency about data completeness before a visitor even searches. Results render as individual cards in a responsive grid.

UX decisions

A single, low-friction search field was used instead of a multi-field advanced search, since the primary need is finding one specific person by last name. Each result surfaces the practical details a visitor needs on the spot — cemetery, section, lot, grave/niche, garden/mausoleum — rather than requiring a follow-up phone call. Capping results with a visible refine-search prompt protects readability and performance for common surnames without silently hiding how many matches actually exist.

Responsive approach

The search card and results grid hold up cleanly at mobile width: the search field and button stay full-width and easy to tap, and the results grid stacks to a single column.

Technical implementation

Built in vanilla JavaScript against a GitHub-hosted JSON data file containing approximately 87,841 burial records — not a conventional server-side database or API. The page's JavaScript fetches that JSON file, loads the records into the browser, and searches them by last name entirely client-side, displaying the available burial information for each match. The interface confirms the dataset to the visitor with a visible "Database loaded" message. Result sets are capped at the first 100 matches with an explicit refine-search prompt for common surnames — observed directly: a search for "Smith" returned 483 total matches, displayed as the first 100 with a refinement notice. (GitHub-hosted JSON mechanism confirmed directly by Jace, who built it.)

Integrations

Integrated as a custom page within Mount Calvary's existing Tribute Technology site-builder platform, sitting alongside the standard cemetery site sections (locations, services, obituaries, available property) rather than existing as a separate standalone tool.

Tools used

• JavaScript — Client-side search logic, DOM rendering, and result-set handling.
• GitHub-hosted JSON dataset — Source data for approximately 87,841 burial records.
• Tribute Technology TCO platform — Site integration and page delivery.

Related projects

• Hughes Family Tribute Center
• Starks Family Funeral Homes
• Drago Funeral Home

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