You can find a wealth of information in even the most poorly kept old cemeteries as long as you pay careful attention to their many clues. Those clues come through gravestones and monuments, through their records, even through the placement of graves in relation to each other.

Modern expectations of permanence and the concept of lot ownership is a relatively recent development. Until the mid-nineteenth century, in both Europe and its former American colonies, cemeteries were merely the places to “remember, human, that you are dust, and into dust you will again return.”

Burial options were few before the mid-1800s. People were buried in churchyards, in public town or community graveyards, or in family burial lots on their own land. Inscribed stones and markers have been in use for centuries, but their cost initially limited them to the most notable and affluent families, and only within the last two centuries have they become commonplace. Earlier, most families marked burial sites, if at all, only by impermanent wooden markers, or by placing distinctive fieldstones at the head and foot, and the significance of the stones were lost with the passing of those who placed them.

Gravesites in most churchyards, except for the more prestigious ones near the church or within it, were considered neither permanent nor worthy of commemoration, and as is still the practice in European churchyards, bones were often disinterred and stored elsewhere so the site could be made available for new burials.

The “New” Cemetery
In the mid-nineteenth century, the rural cemetery movement swept the United States, and its influence later extended to both Europe and the rest of North America. It coincided with the expanding urban populations of the Industrial Revolution and the rapid exhaustion of available space in existing churchyards and public burial grounds. It also reflected the spirit of romanticism and nostalgia that characterized the middle-class culture of the period, emphasizing preservation of the rural landscape and making nature accessible.

The new cemeteries had driveways and paths for accessibility to their landscaping and to individual family plots that were sold in advance. They invited lot owners and the public at large to make cemeteries a destination, picnicking and enjoying other quiet recreation on the family lot or elsewhere within their grounds. Not only did they revolutionize attitudes toward death and burial practices, but by their popularity with the public they gave rise to the public parks movement.

By 1850, most major cities had one or more of the new-style cemeteries. While the prices of lots limited them to the middle and upper classes, the use of deeds with written definitions of burial rights that could be passed on to heirs gave an expectation of permanence that had seldom before been associated with burial places. Cemeteries operated by churches and municipalities, and later by profit-making enterprises, quickly adopted elements introduced by the rural cemetery movement, including deeds, records of lot ownership, and agreements for perpetual care.

Gravestones
In older cemeteries, gravestones are often the only source of information on those buried there. Stone, fortunately, is a relatively enduring medium, although weather and vandalism can wreak havoc over time, and the number discovered in use as doorsteps or paving stones far from their original location is disturbing, to say the least.

Widespread efforts are now preventing future loss by recording the information on stones so it can be archived and preserved. Large-scale projects to record all the tombstones within a state or county were undertaken in the 1930s under the Federal Writers Projects, a depression-era activity of the Works Progress Administration. These largely unpublished compilations can often be found in state archives and local historical society collections. Their great value was in recording many inscriptions that have since been lost to the ravages of time and vandalism. Many local genealogical societies are currently transcribing and publishing gravestone inscriptions, and the Internet has provided a means for their widespread distribution.

In using gravestones as a genealogical source, keep in mind that while most of them are original records, the information they contain is always secondary, since it is derived from some other source. Some of it, like date of death and name of the person, may have passed through fewer hands than other data, like birth date or place, before being engraved in stone. But as most of us have learned through sad experience, the most recent data is occasionally at odds with more contemporary or accurately kept records.

However, without the gravestone as a guide, we may overlook the doors to other information about the deceased that can be found in newspapers, church or courthouse records, and military and pension files, among others.

As permanent records, gravestones are most at risk in small family burial plots on farms in rural areas, or in the churchyards of long-closed and often demolished churches. While a few are maintained by small, dedicated groups of volunteers, most are soon so overgrown with vegetation that they are unrecognizable as burial places. Among the few exceptions are those acquired by the federal government in assembling land for large military reservations. These are regularly maintained, within budgetary limitations, and provide access to descendants.

Locational Information
One of our important sources of genealogical information from cemeteries comes from the relationships of individual burial sites to each other, as revealed by multiple names on a single stone or by the data on nearby stones. This information is generally indirect evidence at best, unless a spouse or child is identified as such, but it often gives the basis for a hypothesis about a family group for which we can then search out further evidence to support or disprove it.

After using a gravestone transcription, never pass up a chance to view the original, no matter how reliably it was made. When transcribed cemetery inscriptions preserve the original order, row by row, in which the stones were copied, they retain much of this locational information content, although adjacent locations in different rows aren't always apparent unless a map or sketch plan is included. All too often, however, well-meaning transcribers will rearrange the inscriptions in alphabetical order to make it easier for people to find the ones they're interested in. The accepted way to record gravestone inscriptions is to list the order they are found in the cemetery, row by row, and then to provide an alphabetical index of all the individual names recorded, to make the collection user-friendly.

Some of the relationships to an original lot owner or burial that may produce different surnames in the same family plot, or in adjacent or nearby graves include a remarried widow, a married sister or her husband, a married daughter or her husband, and the children of married daughters. However, there could be other explanations, and we must treat possibilities based on age and location as hypotheses to be tested by additional evidence. Frequently, these nearby graves may be an indication of a female family member's married surname. When transcriptions are rearranged alphabetically, we can't make the association without a visit to the cemetery.

Records
Before the rural cemetery movement, records were seldom kept other than in a sexton's or caretaker's book, in which payments for burials were recorded. More often than not, they weren't considered permanent records and were discarded once accounts had been settled. Where they have survived, they may name only the person who made the payment, with the person buried described only as parent, spouse, or child, but frequently with some indication of age, like “old,” “young,” or “infant.” For the periods they cover, they are likely to be comprehensive, listing all the burials that took place. For those of our ancestors whose families couldn't afford a gravestone, a sexton's book may be the only contemporary record of death.

Most modern cemeteries create at least three basic records, either on paper or digitally. The first is a journal, a chronological record of burials, which at a minimum gives the name, date, and location of burial, and usually the age. Other information may include next of kin, date of death, name of funeral director, location of funeral, and cause of death.

The second record, akin to a ledger, shows each lot or plot, its owner, and the location, identity, and date of each burial within the plot.

The third record, frequently termed a deed, is the written statement of the rights the buyer obtains—usually an inheritable right to bury related persons, up to the capacity of the lot, and more recently for perpetual care of the grounds and vegetation. Unlike ordinary deeds, it does not convey any right of ownership or possession. Deeds were usually supplied in bound books, and were frequently numbered. When a lot was sold, the deed was detached from the bound stub, on which information about the buyer was recorded by the cemetery.

Cemetery sources are not as conveniently located or easily searched as many other repositories of genealogical data, but the potential rewards of a thorough search will fully justify the extra effort you put into it.

Further Reading
Karen Clifford. “Vital and Cemetery Records,” Printed Sources, ed. Kory L. Meyerink (Ancestry, 1998).

Jackson, Kenneth T., and Camilo José Vergara. Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery (Princeton Architectural Press, 1989).

Sloane, David Charles. The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History (Johns Hopkins, 1991).

Donn Devine, CGSM, CGISM, a genealogical consultant from Wilmington, Delaware, is an attorney for the city and archivist of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington. He is a former National Genealogical Society board member, currently chairs its Standards Committee, and is a trustee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists.®

Return to January/February 2004 issue of Ancestry Magazine.