GUIDELINES FOR CEMETERY BOOKS

Prepared by Ted. O. Brooke 1998

The accurate transcription and publishing of cemetery records is important because it preserves the record on the marker, even if the marker itself is lost. It is also important to historians and genealogists who may seek to research individuals or families who lived in a particular area. Publishing cemetery records is the most positive way to guarantee these records are preserved for future generations.

The following guidelines should be observed for cemetery books:

1. Books should be of reasonable size to be considered a "book." In most cases, books should contain all the cemeteries within a county. In cases of more populous counties, books may contain a specific portion of the county (i.e., "Northern Bibb County," "Chatham County, Excepting Savannah," "Eastern Muscogee County" etc.). In areas where there are larger metropolitan cemeteries, these may be of sufficient size to require a separate book (i.e., "Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta," "Linwood Cemetery, Columbus," "Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon," "Westview Cemetery, Atlanta," etc.

2. The title of a book of cemetery transcriptions should be in the format of "county, state" cemeteries. This is best for cataloging requirements so the book will be cataloged in the most logical place in card catalogs, whether manual or electronic. Examples of this are such titles as "Coweta County, Georgia Cemeteries," "Meriwether County, Georgia, Cemeteries" and "Towns County, Georgia, Cemeteries."

3. Cemeteries should be arranged in alphabetical order by name of cemetery. This helps to organize the book for the user, (i.e. "Antioch Baptist," "Barfield Family," "Crossroads Methodist," "Decatur City," etc.) . The location of each cemetery should be included with directions by road mileage from the nearest major intersection or other permanent landmark.

4. All the markers in each cemetery should be copied, preferably in order by row number and marker number. This requirement may seem superfluous, but there are past cases where some unknown selection process was used, whereby certain markers were purposefully omitted from the survey. Do not omit any markers.

5. The markers are not arranged in any cemetery alphabetically. Cemetery surveys of the individual markers should be presented in the order the markers are located, usually in order by row number and marker number, and not in alphabetical order. This makes it much easier to physically locate any particular marker and maintain possible family relationships for adjacent markers. Also, in the event any marker becomes missing or illegible, it is possible to determine its exact location within the cemetery.

6. Surname and given name require a complete name index.
   1. Index the book by surnames and given names. A book with no index or a surname only index is not as valuable as it would be with a full name index. Imagine the inconvenience when you have searched for a Smith or a Brown in a book indexed by surname only.
   2. Wherever possible, maiden names of women should be included. An example is "Ann Smith Wilson," listed twice in the index: once as "Wilson, Ann Smith" and also as "Smith, Ann." This will greatly help researchers who may only know this person as "Ann Smith" and have no knowledge of her marriage to "Wilson."

Among published books that may be considered models for published cemetery records are:

1. Guelda L. Hay et al, Cemeteries of Macon County, Georgia (Warner Robins, Georgia: Central Georgia Genealogical Society, Inc., 1995).
2. Historic Oglethorpe County, Inc., Cemeteries of Oglethorpe County, Georgia (Fernandina Beach, Florida: Wolfe Publishing Co., 1995.)
3. Ted. O. Brooke, Towns County, Georgia, Cemeteries (Fernandina Beach, Florida: Wolfe Publishing, Co., 1996).

These books are available at many libraries with local history collections and may also be available on interlibrary loan through local libraries.

For more information about transcribing and publishing cemetery records, see Ted O. Brooke, The Cemetery Book: Cemetery Preservation, Restoration, and Recording (Atlanta, Georgia: Georgia Genealogical Society, 1988.) This book is presently being revised, but the current edition may be available at larger genealogical libraries and at local libraries through the interlibrary loan program.

We, at the Georgia Genealogical Society, appreciate your efforts to preserve Georgia's history and the records of those Georgians who have gone before us. We feel that these guidelines will not be an inconvenience but will facilitate the value, usefulness and permanence of your book. Please contact us for additional clarification or for specific questions. Thank you for your contribution to Georgia history.