CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT / PVT Phyllis Alvis, left, shows Emil and Mildred Jenssen, founders of the Grandview Cemetery, the list of everyone buried at the cemetery. The list was compiled after 18 months of hard work by the Pahrump Genealogical Society and the Pahrump Springs chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution. Advertisement

Since it was founded in 1995 by Emil and Mildred Janssen, the Grandview Cemetery has become the resting place for 279 people as of Dec. 31, 2007.

For those interested in their heritage or locating a lost loved one in the cemetery, the task of locating a specific gravesite will now be much easier thanks to the Pahrump Genealogical Society and the Pahrump Springs chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

For the past 18 months, 24 volunteers from the group have worked on compiling a complete list of who is buried in the cemetery.

On Tuesday, June 10, representatives from both groups presented a book with the complete list (which includes maps of the cemetery, the deceased's birth and death dates, inscriptions written on the tombstone and their exact plot in the cemetery) to the Janssens.

"I want to thank you all for doing this," Emil said. "It's a lot of work and I appreciate that."

Chairman of the cemetery committee Phyllis Alvis estimated she and other groups traversed the cemetery at least eight times to ensure the information was accurate.

She described the process the group went through to compile the information simply.

"We walked the cemetery," she said. "And then we re-walked it, and re-walked it again."

Getting all the information from a cemetery can be a more daunting task than one might initially think.

One of the challenges was accurately logging sites where place-holders (which are only three-inch by five-inch cards) had been since they get blown or kicked over so easily.

That's when the Grandview Cemetery Secretary Gina Tassler fell into the project.

She made sure all the place holders were put back in the right place and double- and triple-checked the list as it grew to make sure all were accounted for.

Over time, the long project became personal.

"We got so we knew almost every person," Alvis said. "I had dreams about them for months, they would move around."

"It's surprising how many people you know," Gibson said. "But it's a small town, and that's what we like about it."

The project was helped along by John Firby, who drew out the cemetery map by hand.

"As genealogists, we're interested in our ancestors and want to be able to share that information with our families," Paula Gibson, president of the Genealogical Society said. "So whenever we do research we always walk the old cemeteries."

"Every time we see a sign that says 'cemetery,' we stop," added Alvis.

The Grandview Cemetery was Pahrump's first private cemetery.

"I believed whole-heartedly that Pahrump needed a good cemetery," Emil said.

"The first person was buried here before the building even went up," Mildred said. "Eight people laid the grass in one day so it'd be ready for her."

"I closed up all the irrigation ditches with a walking tractor," Emil added.

Copies of the Grandview book are at the Pahrump Community Library, the Pahrump Town Office and of course the cemetery.

You can purchase your own copy for $10 by contacting Alvis at 775-751-9032 or Gibson at 775-751-1269.

Currently the groups are working on completing a similar list for the Chief Tecopa Cemetery.