Digging For Answers – June 4, 2009

Making Contact With Cemeteries
by Randy Seaver

Welcome to the Digging for Answers column on the Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal.

This column will depend on your submission of questions about cemeteries, gravestones, burial practices, and other topics that concern a Graveyard Rabbit (other than where his next carrot is coming from!). So - please send some questions to the editor, who will pass them along and keep the columnist hopping.

Our question this month came from Russ, who asked:

What is the best approach at making contact with “the office?”

In my most recent visit, in search of a Find-A-Grave and Tombstone Tuesday request, I did stop into the office, as an hour riding around and walking around did not find the headstone I was in search of. It was obvious, by the lack of a computer, that they had everything on 3x5 cards, with some hand drawn plot maps and ledger books.

So, are there any "guidelines" that we might consider when approaching “the office?” From what I have seen, staffing is limited to maybe an office worker and the sexton.

My response is:

1. You were very lucky that the cemetery you visited had an office, had some records on 3x5 cards, had plot maps, etc. Some cemeteries don’t have an office or staff, and some don’t have a card file, let alone a computer system with all of the information on their “residents.”
   
2. There are several articles available on the Internet with guidelines for visiting cemeteries and working with the staff in the “offices.” For your reading pleasure:
   
   
   • Cemetery Records: Search High and Low, Above and Below by Jeffrey A. Bockman
     
   • Visiting Cemeteries by Juliana Smith
     
   • Cemetery Tips Submitted by Readers by Juliana Smith
     
   • Locating Cemeteries and Cemetery Records (Genealogy.com)
     
   • Visiting Cemeteries (Your Family Legacy)
     
3. My advice for a researcher planning to visit a remote cemetery is to:
   
   • Try to find a list of cemeteries in the county of interest on the USGenWeb Project page for the specific county. Most county USGenWeb pages have lists of cemeteries, which often include the address, phone number and web page (if available) for the cemeteries.
     
   • Use Interment.net and Find a Grave to find cemetery locations. You can input state and county in their search fields to determine cemetery names.
     
   • Use a Search Engine (e.g., Google) to find the location of the cemetery of interest on the Internet, noting the address, phone number, and web site (if any) of the cemetery. Some search engines will provide a map of the locality. Use the mapping feature to obtain directions from a known location to the cemetery.
     
   • If a phone number is available, call the cemetery office to determine their hours of operation and the existence of burial records at the cemetery. Ask what would be the best day of the week and time of day to visit the office and obtain records.
     
   • If there is no cemetery office listed, or if no telephone number is listed, contact the local historical society, genealogical society, or local library to determine if the cemetery has records (published or unpublished) and/or a caretaker or sexton.
     
   • When you visit the cemetery, go to the office first (this seems elementary, but some people like to walk around first. I have!). Ask politely about the records and fill out whatever forms are necessary. It’s probably a good idea to not ask for a long list of persons on the first visit.
     
   • Remember that active cemeteries are businesses; their business is to bury people and to make a profit from doing so. However, being a business, they don’t want to alienate potential customers, so they will almost always provide a timely response to your query and provide you with information about your target persons and the location of their interment.

Good luck, ye rabbits, in your cemetery adventures.