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CEMETERY
RESEARCH
By Brenda Kellow, B.A., C.G.
Often
Beginners, new to genealogy research, spend entirely too much time looking in
published works. I understand that it is necessary for all of us to have a
template to identify exactly where our subjects are so that we can begin the
detailed and often complicated work of searching through the primary records
collected during the time of the person or persons lifetime. However, I find
that sometimes the material from the publications are taken as fact without ever
once questioning it or seeking other means of substantiating it. In the case of
cemetery records, if a typographical error is made in the date on a tombstone
and not identified and corrected in the researcher’s data, then months or even
years can be wasted. Worst still, the incorrect information may be perpetuated.
Many cemetery books are in alphabetical order. This method prevents us from
knowing who is buried together in the same plot, or even who is buried next to
one another. Questioning published cemetery records is a must. It is imperative
that you either search the cemetery personally or have an agent examine it for
you. Since the census records prior to 1850 did not give the wife’s name, a
tombstone just might! Children born before the 1850’s who died as an infant or
as a teenager just might have a stone to identify them with their parents or
grandparents.
Cemetery Records can often reveal so much
information that you just cannot find any other place, yet, some researchers
fail to spend the necessary time in the graveyards to really answer their
questions. Take the necessary time to examine each stone. If it is of interest
to you, take a picture of it, make a rubbing, and/or record its likeness and its
inscription on paper before leaving it.
To make everything run as smoothly as possible, get all your cemetery supplies
and equipment together the day before the trip. Better still, keep it together
in a container or back pack.
Your cemetery excursions in this area should
probably take place in the winter or early spring before the grass begins to
grow and while the snakes are still in hiding. Plan your arrival by mid morning.
This will allow you to survey the stones adequately before you have to leave in
the afternoon. Dress appropriately for the outdoors. Remember that wide open
spaces are colder than areas protected by hedgerows and buildings. Bring a sack
lunch with plenty of drinking water and soft drinks or hot coffee and take time
to eat it —even have a picnic. You will also need several water bottles for
cleaning dirty stones. You might also need a cellular phone, pair of clippers,
shears, trowel, gloves, first aid kit, and medication.
Most important of all if you are a female,
always, and I do mean always, take a friend with you. Better still,
take two or three friends with you — and use common sense! Not all visitors have
your intentions. If you do your homework before you
go, you will have a lovely experience.
VISITING
CEMETERIES ON PRIVATE PROPERTY
Access to the cemetery can be trying if it is located on private property
and the owner views visitors as a nuisance. If this is a problem in visiting
Texas cemeteries, then you should know of the ingress/egress laws.
in·gress
(în¹grès´) noun
1.
Also in·gres·sion (în-grèsh¹en).
A going in or entering.
2.
Right or permission to enter.
3.
A means or place of entering.
[Middle English ingresse, from Latin ingressus,
from past participle of ingredì, to enter : in-, in. See IN-2 +
gradì, to step.][1]
e·gress
(ê¹grès´) noun
1.
The act of coming or going out;
emergence.
2.
The right of going out: refugees who
were denied egress.
3.
A path or opening for going out; an
exit.
LOCATING THE CEMETERY
Map
Symbology
Detailed county road maps identify churches, cemeteries and churches with
attached cemeteries by symbols. The churches have a cross; the cemeteries are
identified with a rectangle; and the churches with attached cemeteries use a
rectangle with a cross inside. Get a magnifying glass and identify these
symbols.
Deed Research
Deed research is a must for finding location of property. It can provide for
tombstone and maintenance of plots. This information puts you in the ball park
of the cemetery used by family. It dates the family’s arrival in county or area.
Other family members or neighbors who migrated with the family may be buried
nearby.
TYPES OF RECORDS
Written Sources
·
Ecclesiastical Burial Registers - listed chronologically
·
Check central church archives [Hunt for them!]
·
Women buried with surname, sometimes with maiden names
·
Relatives buried in same plots, usually
·
Sextants’ Records - a burial registry
·
Oriented toward both property and occupant
·
Identifies plots available, occupied, owned, un-owned for record
keeping
·
In municipal cemeteries
·
Commercial cemeteries
·
Shared denominational
·
Cemetery Deeds and Plats
·
Copy recorded in courthouse
·
Owner keeps copy
·
Sextant keeps deed in Cemetery Deed Registers
·
Cemetery Deed Registry
·
Owners’ name
·
Description: Lot #, Block #, Plat #
·
Names those entitled to be buried there
·
Date and sextants’ name
·
Plat Record
·
Drawing with plat #, Block #, Lot #, deceased’s name
·
Burial Permit Records
·
Board of Health Regulations
·
Licensed Morticians
·
Certified Burial Permit [County Clerks Office]
·
Grave Opening Orders
·
Board of Health Regulations
·
Burial
·
Postmortem
·
Exhumation
·
Transfer of body (mandatory in NY0
·
Family Bibles
·
Consider as Colonial Sextant Record
·
May be only written record in some cases
·
May name family burial plot
·
Monuments [Also called sepulchers]
·
Memorials
·
Religious gifts found inside churches
·
Church windows, alter pieces, statues
·
Monetary Contributions
·
Building funds and special projects
·
Trust funds
·
Charities
·
Tombs and Vaults
·
Crematory Vaults -urns
·
Tombstone Inscriptions
·
Identifies women’s names on tombstones who are not identified on
early census records.
·
Art Work on the Monument
·
Occupations
·
Fraternal Societies
·
Special Interests
·
Cause of death
·
Grave Markers
·
Lay-out
·
Largest for Father and Mother
·
Tombstone Company
CEMETERY ASSOCIATIONS
The associations publish information
on all categories pertaining to cemetery research.
·
See: The Source, p. 66
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
American Monument Association, Inc. Memorial
Symbolism, Epitaphs and Design Types. Boston: American Monument Association,
n.d.
Carmack, Sharon DeBartolo, CGRS. “Carved in Stone:
Composition and Durability of Stone Gravemarkers,” NGS Newsletter 17
(May-June 1991), pp. 69-70.
Child, Heather and Dorothy Colles. Christian
Symbols, Ancient & Modern. Great Britain: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971.
Cuillard, Donna Debevec. “Cemetery and Burial Records
—Clues From The Past.” 1995 NGS Conference in the States, pp. 117-120.
Divak, Yvonne P. “A Look at Cemeteries as Genealogical
Repositories.” Ancestry Newsletter, Vol. VIII, no. 4 (July-August 1898),
pp 1-12.
Eakle, Arlene and Johni Cerny, eds. The
Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. Salt Lake: Ancestry Publishing
Co., 1984, pp. 60-72.
Francaviglia, Richard V. “The Cemetery as an
Evolving Cultural Landscape,” Annals of the Association of American
Geographers Vol. 61 (September 1971), pp. 501-509.
Genealogical Institute. How to Search a
Cemetery. Salt Lake: Family History World, 1974.
Greenwood, Val D., The Researcher’s Guide to
American Genealogy. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., Inc., 1990, pp. 545-555.
Jackson, J.B. “The Vanishing Epitaph: From
Monument to Place,” Landscape Vol. 17 (1967), pp. 22-26.
Jackson, Kenneth T. and Camillo Jose Vergara.
Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1989.
Jeane, D. Gregory. “Folk Cemeteries of the Rural
South,” 1988 NGS Conference in the States, pp. 227-232.
Jordan, Terry G. Texas Graveyards: A Cultural
Legacy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Marion, John Francis. Famous and Curious
Cemeteries. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1979.
Walker, Douglas D., Ph.D. “AGS Cemetery Surveying
Program,” Ancestoring Vol. XIII, Augusta, GA: Augusta Genealogical
Society, Inc., 1990, pp. 69-75.
Recommended
citation:
"Genealogy, How Do I Start," by Brenda Kellow, B.A., CG, Texas History and Genealogy
Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
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