Cemeteries: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:34, 27 January 2012

Cemeteries are regarded as the location where people are buried after they die. They are often known by various terms such as graveyards, burying grounds, burial grounds, burial plots, 'churchyards', and several other terms. Some of the terms are often used to define smaller cemeteries, such as those that may be adjacent to a church, hence the term 'churchyard' in a few cases for example, with smaller cemeteries, while others apply to all.

A cemetery may be operated by a municipality, or it may be operated by a church or religion, a funeral home or other private company, or a fraternal order. Depending on availability of suitable land, it may be quite small, or it may be very large. Some burial plots may contain only one or several graves, while a few very large ones may have over a million burials.

Finding Cemeteries[edit | edit source]

There are a number of ways to find cemeteries:

Look in phone books or other directories for a location
Look in atlases, gazetteers, or other maps to see if cemeteries are shown.
Search for them on Google, which has many listed, but not all. Google Maps has a large number shown on them in English-speaking areas, coverage is incomplete in most other languages.
Use burial databases online, such as those described below to locate not only the cemetery, but often listings or photos of headstones for those buried in them. Coverage varies from site to site, so search in more than one site.

Websites for Cemetery Research[edit | edit source]

The following websites are useful in locating many burials.

Individual Cemetery Websites[edit | edit source]

Some cemeteries will maintain a website which will often list operating hours, and some will post burial lists online on those sites. Be sure to see if the cemetery you want to find a burial has a website, often this can be found via a search engine.

Find A Grave[edit | edit source]

Find A Grave is probably the best known aggregaor site for cemetery data. Photos and other information are gathered by site visitors and users and submitted to it. They are then made searchable, and you can search for a burial globally on the site. Coverage depends on the cemetery and the interest in it. May not contain the more recent headstones in some cases.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{breadcrumb
+<br> {{Cemetery-stub}}
-| link1=[[Record Types|Record Types]]
-| link2=
-| link3=
-| link4=
-| link5=[[Cemeteries|Cemeteries]]
-}}
-Guide to locating cemetery records for ancestry, family history, and genealogy research.
-==Online Resources==
+Cemeteries are regarded as the location where people are buried after they die. They are often known by various terms such as graveyards, burying grounds, burial grounds, burial plots, 'churchyards', and several other terms. Some of the terms are often used to define smaller cemeteries, such as those that may be adjacent to a church, hence the term 'churchyard' in a few cases for example, with smaller cemeteries, while others apply to all.
-'''International Collections'''<br>
-*[http://www.findagrave.com Find a Grave]
-*[http://www.interment.net Interment.net]
-*[http://www.billiongraves.com BillionGraves]
-*[http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=205c956b-25b3-47fe-9fb1-2c758098e5cb&st=2 Waymarking.com Worldwide Cemeteries]
-==What Cemeteries Are==
+A cemetery may be operated by a municipality, or it may be operated by a church or religion, a funeral home or other private company, or a fraternal order. Depending on availability of suitable land, it may be quite small, or it may be very large. Some burial plots may contain only one or several graves, while a few very large ones may have over a million burials.
-Cemeteries are regarded as the location where people are buried after they die. They are often known by various terms such as graveyards, burying grounds, burial grounds, burial plots, 'churchyards', and several other terms. A cemetery may be operated by a municipality, or it may be operated by a church or religion, a funeral home or other private company, or a fraternal order.
-==Information in the Records==
+== Finding Cemeteries ==
-'''Cemetery records may provide information such as: '''
-*the deceased’s name
-*date and place of birth and death
-*age of the deceased at death
-*place of origin
-*names of other persons related to the deceased
-*maiden surname
-*sometimes marriage information.
-*clues about military service, religion, occupation
-*place of residence at time of death
-*membership in an organization.
-===Record Types and Content===
+There are a number of ways to find cemeteries:
-====Headstone Inscriptions====
-Information recorded on headstones (also known as tombstones or gravestones) may include multiple family members are buried in the same vault and the inscription will give information on all that are buried there. Often, this information has been transcribed, indexed, and published and is found online and in manuscripts and books in libraries and archives.
-<br>
-====Published Headstone Inscriptions====
-Published transcriptions of cemeteries, when available, may include additional information. They often are more complete because tombstones can be lost over time or difficult to read because of weathering and aging of headstones.
-====Written Records====
+*Look in phone books or other directories for a location
-Written records are information recorded by cemetery officials or caretakers, included in parish and cemetery records recorded by the civil authority. Written records include:
+*Look in atlases, gazetteers, or other maps to see if cemeteries are shown.
-*Cemetery sextons' records
+*Search for them on Google, which has many listed, but not all.  Google Maps has a large number shown on them in English-speaking areas, coverage is incomplete in most other languages.
-*Municipal cemetery records
+*Use burial databases online, such as those described below to locate not only the cemetery, but often listings or photos of headstones for those buried in them.  Coverage varies from site to site, so search in more than one site.
-*Church yard records
-*Grave books
-*Plot books
-*Maps
-==How to Find Cemeteries==
+=== Websites for Cemetery Research ===
-*Not all cemetery tombstones have been transcribed and published online or in book form.
-*Some cemeteries are located next to a church. If the church name is known, search there first.
-*Individuals may die in another part of the country. but brought back to their home parish for burial.
-*Burial places may be mentioned in church records, newspaper announcements, or family histories.
-*Search directories for possible cemeteries.
-*Search in atlases, gazetteers, or other maps listing cemeteries.
-*Google Maps has a large number of English-speaking areas, coverage is incomplete in most other languages.
-*Many cemeteries maintain a website which will often list operating hours, and some will post burial lists online for those sites.
-==Records by Location==
+The following websites are useful in locating many burials.
-Search by country:
-*[[:Category:Cemeteries]]
-==Research Strategies==
+==== Individual Cemetery Websites ====
-===Ways to Read Gravestones===
+Some cemeteries will maintain a website which will often list operating hours, and some will post burial lists online on those sites.  Be sure to see if the cemetery you want to find a burial has a website, often this can be found via a search engine.
-*[http://www.ourfamiliesroots.org/graves/articles/methods.html Alternative Gravestone Reading Methods]
+==== Find A Grave ====
+[http://www.findagrave.com Find A Grave] is probably the best known aggregaor site for cemetery data.  Photos and other information are gathered by site visitors and users and submitted to it.  They are then made searchable, and you can search for a burial globally on the site.  Coverage depends on the cemetery and the interest in it.  May not contain the more recent headstones in some cases.
 [[Category:Cemeteries]]