Amna Nawaz:

Memorial Day was first established after the Civil War, but has become a day to mark all those who died serving in the military.

As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, Judy Woodruff reports on a local project to mark our revolutionary origins and the final resting places of some of the nation's first veterans. It's part of her series America at a Crossroads.

Matthew Lucas, Public Researcher, Ohio Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Project:

And today is Turkey Run? Yes. Turkey Run Cemetery, Fairfield County.

Judy Woodruff:

For nearly a year, Matthew Lucas, often joined by his wife, Brenda, has logged more than 6,000 miles on the hunt for specific markers of Ohio's Revolutionary era history.

Matthew Lucas:

So, this one...

Brenda, Wife of Matthew Lucas: This has to be it. The star has got that thing on it.

Matthew Lucas:

Yes, there's a star marker, 1776 marker.

Judy Woodruff:

The graves of Revolutionary War veterans.

Matthew Lucas:

James Lamb, 79 when he died. Still a nice stone.

Brenda:

Yes.

Judy Woodruff:

Lucas is part of a statewide project of volunteers trying to mark all of the estimated 7,000 Revolutionary War veteran graves in Ohio.

Matthew Lucas:

At first, it popped up on my Facebook feed. So I started doing some research on the project, what they were trying to do. And I thought, well, I don't know how many Revolutionary War soldiers there are around here. But let me see if I can find three.

If I can find three Revolutionary graves, I will be happy.

Judy Woodruff:

And now you're at?

Matthew Lucas:

And now I'm at 490.

Tunis (ph) and Francina (ph).

Judy Woodruff:

At each grave, Lucas marks exactly where the site is using GPS, its condition, any markings, and even the direction it faces.

Matthew Lucas:

That one is definitely west.

Judy Woodruff:

All that information, along with eventually photos, are collected in an online database.

Matthew Lucas:

When I found this project going, OK, I can pay honor and respect to them by finding their graves, marking them, acknowledging them. So it's permanent record, then, forever, that you can look up and see, wait, that's my five-times great-grandfather. And I know exactly by GPS where they're buried at.

Judy Woodruff:

What is it like for you when you find a grave or when you get there and you make the connection, oh, this is it, this is the real place where someone was laid to rest?

Matthew Lucas:

I still get butterflies. I still get excited.

Krista Horrocks, Ohio Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Project:

We have probably over 400 known veterans in Hamilton County.

Judy Woodruff:

Krista Horrocks is the project manager for the Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Project and works for the Ohio History Connection, a statewide history organization.

Krista Horrocks:

These grave sites will not live on forever. There's nothing we can do to stop the erosion permanently, but to be able to document them is the best thing we can do, because that will outlive all of us.

Judy Woodruff:

The project is part of Ohio's 250th Commission, just one of the 56 state and U.S. territory local planning groups formed for the anniversary.

John Dichtl, President and CEO, American Association for State and Local History: America's history is more than the founding fathers. It's more than what happens in Washington, D.C. It's more than what happens in big cities. It's people's stories from every corner of the country.

Judy Woodruff:

John Dichtl leads the American Association for State and Local History, which is supporting local efforts to celebrate the 250th, including by bringing together these state-level commissions.

The focus on local efforts is a lesson from the last major anniversary, the bicentennial in 1976, when national planning was turbulent. Federal organizers were accused during the Nixon administration of being overly commercial and trying to exploit the bicentennial politically.

And the bicentennial itself occurred less than two years after President Nixon resigned and a year after the U.S. evacuated from Vietnam.

John Dichtl:

Some of the things we saw is that the kind of big, grand efforts to organize often got caught up in politics and funding issues. So one lesson we took was that it really needed to be grassroots, locally planned, kind of bubbling from the bottom up.

Judy Woodruff:

Dichtl says the enthusiasm for the bicentennial also had a lasting impact on history organizations. More than 30 percent of all history groups that existed in 1980 were founded in the bicentennial era.

John Dichtl:

We're not just leaving the 250th to the National Park Service by itself or the National Archives or some commission to find the meaning of and come up with the big programs and projects for it, that people are going to make the semiquincentennial what they want.

And for all the planning you do, you cannot predict how people are going to engage with that, so you really just want to be ready.

Judy Woodruff:

Back in Ohio, Krista Horrocks says the grave project is also building on research from around the bicentennial by groups like Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution. But just as important, she says, it's igniting public participation.

Krista Horrocks:

Yes, you can go to an event. You can go to a reenactment. All that is super fun. But to be able to contribute and say, I helped make this project possible, I think that's really what engages people and why we have had so much interest from people who aren't typical historians.

Matthew Lucas:

I have been close to this cemetery 100 times. Never knew it was here.

Judy Woodruff:

You never -- there was no marking?

Matthew Lucas:

No. I mean, there's no marker by the road. There's no marker anywhere that it's back here.

Judy Woodruff:

Measuring less than a fifth-of-an-acre, Ritter Cemetery in Pickaway County has exactly one Revolutionary veteran grave, according to historical records. But the headstone itself is missing.

Matthew Lucas:

The worst thing about this cemetery and others is, as you can see, stones are just piled up. So I actually went through every headstone I could find, hoping to find that stone. When I didn't, then I did the rest of the research, because I don't want to mark somebody here, unless I'm 100 percent positive that they're here.

Judy Woodruff:

Now armed with additional documentation, Lucas marked the site using his phone. It's for a Hessian soldier who fought for the British, was captured and then decided to join the colonists.

Lucas says he hopes to eventually pinpoint the exact burial location using older records and get a replacement headstone.

Matthew Lucas:

So, if I can get that marked, it's just going to be wonderful.

Most of the time spent on the project has been sitting right here, two to three hours every night after work.

Judy Woodruff:

For Matthew Lucas, this research has been a crash course in Ohio's colonial history.

Matthew Lucas:

Before the project, I had no idea how many, why did they move here, why did they pick Ohio. And then I slowly found out it's because they were given the land. The government had no money. So, instead, we will give you land in the Northwest Territory.

And then maybe you will pick up your roots, pick up your family, go to the middle of nowhere to start a new life over again. That part just amazes me.

Krista Horrocks:

One of the things I have found the most exciting about this project is just being able to do a little bit of research.

Judy Woodruff:

Horrocks says the project is a great opportunity for Ohioans to feel a connection to their local community. And some volunteers have gone above and beyond, cleaning graves, in addition to marking them.

Krista Horrocks:

They really lived very incredible lives. And for the local communities to know that and to be able to own that and say, these are the people who a lot of times helped them establish these little local communities all over Ohio.,

And then for people maybe even to make those genealogical connections, so finding out this was actually my ancestor and I had no idea, that's, to me, so exciting.

Judy Woodruff:

Today is the final day to mark grave sites, but already more than 4,300 have been catalogued. Over the next couple weeks, researchers will clean up the data and remove any duplicates, with the online database going live again on July 4.

So that's his original stone.

Matthew Lucas:

That's his original.

Judy Woodruff:

Since we visited with Matthew Lucas in April, he has marked more than 200 additional graves, bringing his total to more than 700, the most out of any volunteer in the state.

Matthew Lucas:

Future generations can always just stumble across it. I mean, the picnics, the parades and all that are wonderful, but this is something that can last so much farther.

Judy Woodruff:

Using this milestone moment to document the past for our nation's future.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Pickaway County, Ohio.