A keen interest in history and a fervor for preserving heritage have brought two Vicksburg women together, working to move death records from decrepit books to the world of cyberspace.

Bobbie Beyers Edwards and Karen Frederick, both 63, have been volunteering their free time for about a month transcribing records kept by W.H. Jefferson Funeral Home, the state’s oldest black funeral home, in hopes of benefiting those who are in search of their heritage.

“I feel like families, more and more, are becoming interested in their family history,” said Edwards. “For the black community, it’s not easy. There aren’t a lot of records and this is going to be a big benefit.”

Edwards, a member of the Vicksburg Genealogical Society, has been keying old records into digital files for about 28 years, mostly as a hobby, she said.

“It’s a passion with me,” she said. “I love the research.”

The project started when Frederick, secretary of the Beulah Cemetery Restoration Committee, approached James Jefferson Jr., co-owner of the funeral home, about the possibility of preserving their records following the death of longtime Beulah Cemetery caretaker Leo Sims in February.

“So many things have been lost — especially for African-Americans,” Frederick said. “It was beautiful information.”

Jefferson, at first, was concerned about possible damages that could have been done to the fragile record books that date to the 19th century. But he relented.

“Since we’re the oldest black funeral home in the state,” he said, “where better to start than with our records? I think this will be a very good record to show how much cultural heritage there is there. It’s something that people need to do.”

The funeral home was opened in 1894 by William Henry and Lucy Jefferson, James Jefferson’s great-uncle and -aunt.

Records at the funeral home have been kept by the traditional pen and paper. Through the years, James Jefferson has kept those old record books in sealed boxes at his Monroe Street office, allowing access to no one.

In this technology age, he said, the move to modernize funeral records will be helpful to those scouring the internet.

“We’re putting it on computers, flash drives and CDs so people can access it instead of having them handle a 100-year-old book,” Jefferson said. “I have people contact me every month for records. Now we’ll be able to just go to a disk.”

The work involves combing through fragile books that have made it through the past 100 years and deciphering language no longer in use.

“Some of the causes of death I’m not familiar with,” Edwards said. “I’ve seen a lot that say ‘dropsy.’ After looking it up, I find that it was congestive heart failure.”

Both terms will be recorded in the new files, she said.

The two women, who both have full-time jobs, say they don’t know how long it will take to transcribe 117 years worth of information.

But when they are done, the work is expected to be available to the public at the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library.

Robbins Funeral Home, which opened in the early 1930s, moved last year about 40 years of their records onto a digital file.

At the suggestion of some friends who were researching their own genealogical history, funeral home owner Yolande Robbins copied death records from 1937 to 1975.

“I saw it as advantageous because now we have a backup,” she said. “Families who are seeking information about their relatives would call and within an hour, I would find that information for them.”

Records are not available to the public, Robbins said, but families seeking information about their own relatives can call the funeral home.

Robbins has plans to move the rest of the funeral records onto a digital file by the end of the year.

Another long-established funeral home in Vicksburg that has had some of their records digitally copied is Glenwood Funeral Home, which opened in 1944. Others — Frank J. Fisher Funeral Home, Riles Funeral Home and Dillon-Chisley Funeral Home — do not have electronic records.

Lakeview Memorial Funeral Home, which opened in 2002, records its books electronically and manually, co-owner Mildred Willis said.