Copyright ?   Grave Markers are considered public domain property and not subject to current copyright laws. However, digital photos or transcriptions of them are.  Can anyone perform a cemetery survey and up-load it to the internet? Yes, they can.....

Cemeteries

Last Updated On:  Friday, January 29, 2010

Going Grave Hunting?  Here is a short list of items you will need to take with you. 

What Lies Beneath?  During the early 1930's the Tennessee Valley Authority [TVA] constructed numerous dams in our Southern Appalachia area.  There are lists of burials that were subject to flooding and where they were removed. Not all persons were relocated. These TVA records are found at the National Archives, SE Branch, Morrow GA.   Search the master list:

Alpha Listings, 887 pgs [.pdf].

The Works Project Administration [WPA] conducted cemetery surveys, local records transcriptions, etc.  in the 1930's which will include transcriptions of pre-1914 grave markers that today are hidden, lost or unreadable.  There are some transcriptions of these records online.  For the complete WPA collections, consult the appropriate State Archives or local genealogical or historical society.

• WPA Records at NARA

• WPA in North Carolina

• WPA in Tennessee

• WPA in Georgia

• WPA in South Carolina

• WPA/TVA On-line Archaeological
  Digital Photograph Collection

Complete vs. Partial Cemetery Surveys.  It is always best to use and cite surveys that are considered to be complete at the time it was taken so that the information retains its integrity when comparing it to other complete surveys throughout time.  Example, comparing a WPA survey with a published cemetery book survey is comparing apples with apples and the differences are who has been buried since the earlier survey and whose grave marker has since vanished.  Today we are comparing complete WPA or DAR surveys with published cemetery books with 21st Century digital photo surveys.  Partial surveys are those reflecting only a small portion of all marked graves at any point in time.  A partial survey is NOT a 'complete' survey knowing that other unknown graves once existed; thus, what can be seen and transcribed is only a partial survey. Partial surveys are usually submitted to sites by various individuals whose accuracy and data source is not known, often have no survey date or cemetery location information.  Thus, AAG will only include what it reasonably believes to be a complete survey.

	Funeral Customs
	Burial Customs
	U.S. Cemetery Address Book - Ancestry.com
	GNIS - use the USGS mapping on-line services to locate cemeteries as well as other geographical locations by state and county, including historical, now-defunct places
	Calculate Birth Date from Death Date
	Tombstones:  Symbols, Initials & Other Info
	The VA Burial Marker Program
	National & State Cemetery Veterans Burials Database - over 3 million records
	Confederate Memorial Day:  Apr 26 in GA; May 10 in NC and SC and Jun 3 in TN
	Final Passage of New Georgia Cemetery and Funeral Laws - Cathy Cox, GA Secretary of State
	Indian Burial & Sacred Grounds Watch
	African-American  Cemeteries Online
	Georgia Cemetery Assn.
	Dating Tombstones
	Tennessee Civil War Cemeteries
	List of Books with Tennessee WPA Cemetery Surveys
	South Carolina Cemetery Preservation site at SCDAH - includes SC Cemetery laws
	U.S. Military Burial Registers, 1768-1921
	GPS Converter: Enter the GPS Coordinates we provide with each cemetery; then, see location on Map  site of your choice. Hint: Yahoo and MapQuest maps show county names and boundaries.

Cemetery Information and Surveys by County

In genealogy, cemeteries are always identified by the county/state where they are located today. 
 It is up to each researcher to know what the historical boundaries were for a particular county.
To help, we have given a brief  formation history and bordering counties on each county's cemetery page.
See our Area History section for additional historical information.

 To date, only Georgia counties are completed
We hope to have all 4 states covering  83 counties finished by Summer 2010

Thank you for your patience!!!

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