Old Cemetery Searches

Searching For The Lost Gravestones

Here are some suggestions to help in your old cemetery searches. You may have to dig very hard to find information about the abandoned or lost cemeteries.

Check with the local library, historical association, and/or genealogical society for any information they may have for the cemetery you are searching for.

Check with local churches, the town, village, or city hall, and the land record office, for information.

Sometimes, these resources can point you in the right direction, or at least give you the sad information that not one of that cemetery's stones has survived.

But, they may also know where the old cemetery records may be.

Try to make contact with some of the "oldsters" in the community. There may be a senior citizens' association or program.

Many times, these older residents can give you much information about the whole area including that old graveyard.

If local resources don't have the information you need, try wider resources.

These can include the state or national church archives if the cemetery was a church one.

They can also include the provincial/state government agency that licenses cemeteries. When the cemetery was abandoned, the records or information about the cemetery may have been gathered by such a department.

You can also search the internet for information about that old abandoned graveyard.

There may be a listing of the stones done earlier by some interested person or group which you can access.

Use such resources as

• Rootsweb
• Ancestry
• FamilySearch

to make contact with other people who are searching for the same information, or someone who has that information already.

Find That Person Who Has Your Lost Information