YSU’s Amy Fluker leads major grant project to digitize Warren’s Oakwood Cemetery records

Amy Fluker, associate professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Youngstown State University is turning her passion for connecting students with community history into a groundbreaking digital project – now bolstered by a major new grant.

Fluker, in partnership with the Trumbull County Historical Society, is leading the Oakwood Cemetery Digitization Project, an effort to preserve and make accessible more than 30,000 interment records from Warren’s historic Oakwood Cemetery. The records – dating back to the mid-1800s – include the names of nationally significant figures as well as generations of Valley residents.

The TCHS received an Inspire: Grants for Small Museums award of $74,795 for the completion of the project.

“This grant takes us from a walk to a sprint,” Fluker said. “It allows us not only to finish scanning and transcribing the cemetery’s records, but also to connect them with thousands of naturalization documents. Together, these sources will tell a fuller story of the people who built Warren and the Mahoning Valley.”

Since 2021, YSU students have played a central role, scanning and transcribing more than 5,000 records through Fluker’s History of Ohio course. Along the way, students gain hands-on training in digital humanities, archival work and public history skills – skills that prepare them for careers in museums, libraries and historical societies.

“What excites me most is watching students realize this work isn’t just for a grade,” Fluker said. “They see that the records they’re preserving may help families trace their history, or allow researchers to explore issues like immigration, industrialization or public health. It shows them history is alive and useful.”

The project also promises long-term benefits for the community. In addition to creating a free, searchable online database and ArcGIS map, the grant will support cemetery tours and interpretive signage that bring Oakwood’s history to life for visitors.

“History is only meaningful if it’s useful to people,” Fluker said. “This project blends scholarship, education and public service, giving students real-world experiences while connecting our community with its past.”

The Oakwood Cemetery Digitization Project underscores YSU’s mission of community engagement and highlights how faculty-led research can enrich both classrooms and the broader region.