The Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation has built a database of roughly 8,500 historic cemeteries across the state and invites people to submit information about gravesites yet to be documented.

"It's really important to know about the cemeteries because of the possible construction of a building or road or pipeline," said Brian Davis, executive director of the nonprofit trust.

"It's a way to respect and protect the cemeteries," he said. 

The newly launched Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries "is a way of letting people know, 'This is a cemetery,'" Davis said. 

"It's especially important in the southern part of the state," he said. "Because of erosion and rising sea levels, some cemeteries are going underwater, especially in lower Lafourche Parish." 

One is Leeville Cemetery, noted on the new historic cemetery registry. The graves there date back to 1905, when there was an epidemic of yellow fever.

The Louisiana Trust of Historic Preservation worked on the new database over the past year, with the help of the Louisiana Cemetery Board and graduate students in Tulane University's master's of science program in historic preservation, Davis said. 

People who are familiar with any of the cemeteries currently on the list are invited to add information about the site, he said.

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