Keeping the dead alive
Gallup woman collects names of deceased for geneology research

Joyce Spiros sits in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Gallup on Thursday. Spiros has been working on recording the names of people buried in local cemeteries to provide data online for people who are researching their family histories on the Internet. Spiros is looking for some assistance with her efforts at Hillcrest Cemetery because of its uneven ground and her limited mobility. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burroal
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Joyce Spiros is well aware that her hobby is rather odd.

In fact, it's so quirky that she knows she'll never see a whole crowd of enthusiasts beat a path to her door. But she is hoping a few local people might want to join her in the fun.

And just exactly what does Spiros do?

She posts obituaries from The Independent on the Internet, culls death notices from old newspapers and government documents, and takes digital images of cemetery signs and gravestones in other words she's a local genealogical researcher with an interest in death records.

"You see, I'm kind of a nut," admitted Spiros during a recent interview. "But you know I enjoy it."

And Spiros, who walks with the assistance of a walker and who will turn 76 next month, is looking for others to join her in her genealogy project.

Spiros said she began collecting local death records in 1979 when she starting clipping obituaries from The Independent and pasting them on sheets of paper. Then every-so-often she would send her records to the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City and the New Mexico Genealogical Society in Santa Fe where librarians would transfer the information onto microfilm. Eventually Spiros passed those same records on to the Octavia Fellin Public Library in Gallup.

Her motivation, said Spiros, was to help the community by preserving the records.

Through out the years, Spiros has also researched obituaries, marriage records, and birth announcements that were published in various early 20th century Gallup newspapers. She was also assisted, she said, by a number of local cemetery lists that were compiled by other local researchers, and she also obtained information from the Death Register at the McKinley County Courthouse.

Back when she was employed at the Federal Building, Spiros recalled, she would eat her lunch quickly and then walk over to the courthouse to copy down information for the remainder of her lunch hour. Spiros said she would copy the information by hand and then type it in the evening on her old manual typewriter.

Now, personal computers, the Internet, and digital cameras have revolutionized Spiros' approach to recording information.

Almost two years ago, Spiros decided to start posting local obituary information on the Find a Grave Web site (www.findagrave.com). With the permission of Independent publisher Bob Zollinger, Spiros began pulling obituary notices and photographs off The Independent's Web site and onto findagrave.com.

"People don't realize how big a territory The Independent covers," Spiros said. Because the newspaper's circulation area extends west to Tuba City, east to Laguna Pueblo, north to Shiprock, and south to Ramah and Zuni, Spiros' obituary postings cover that same huge geographic area.

Spiros also began photographing images from local cemeteries and posting them on the Web site.

When she began posting information online, Spiros said, Find a Grave only had 9 million names. Now, she said, it has 16 million names.

Spiros likes the site because family members can add photos of their loved ones and write memorial messages. On the web page for her own late son, Thomas, Spiros added a message on his birthday.

"You know you're not actually talking to them," Spiros said of the memorial messages, "but you feel better when you can do that."

Spiros, who said she spends about four hours a day working on the project, said she has recorded over 24,500 names thus far and has taken 2,700 digital photographs.

"I've had several people e-mail me and thank me for the information they've found," she said.

"It keeps me busy," she added. "I hope I'm doing something worthwhile for the community."

Anyone interested in working with Joyce Spiros on this genealogy project can e-mail her at jvspyrose@cnetco.com or call her at (505) 863-5112. Phone callers are asked not to call in the afternoon between 1-3 p.m.