Cemetery
Surveying 101
Completing
a cemetery survey can be a long, tiring, hot, dirty and yet rewarding job. When
you're standing all by yourself in the middle of a cemetery on a hot afternoon,
thirsty, tired, perspiration running down your glasses and dripping on you notes,
you think to yourself, "I must be crazy for doing this! I don't have any
family in here." Then you remember what brought you there in the first
place. Cemetery markers are disappearing at an alarming rate from either
deterioration or vandalism. By completing a survey, you are preserving history
and the memory of those that have gone before you. Any name or date that you
record may be that single bit of information that someone else needs to connect
his or her elusive family link. The
reward comes from sharing your information with others and knowing that your
hard work may help someone else. Hopefully, a hundred years from now, your
descendants will have a much easier time finding their ancestors than we have.
The
first thing you need to decide when doing a cemetery survey is how you want to
do it. Some people do their surveys by row, which helps preserve family
relationships. Others do surveys by rows or sections and then record the data
alphabetically. If choosing to do your survey alphabetically, it is a good idea
to make notes as to who is buried beside and around each tombstone. This helps
researchers tie in family relationships. Decide which method you want to use and
be consistent. Plot the cemetery out by sections or rows and record information
on each row or section until it is completed. Be careful when working in rows,
sometimes they won't be straight and you can get off track and miss markers.
Include
in your survey the location of the cemetery and full directions on how to reach
it. Include the city, major intersections, highways and/or main roads. If you
want, you may also include a brief description of the cemetery, such as
condition, accessibility or history. Also include your name and the date the
survey was completed.
If
there is a WPA survey of the cemetery you have recorded, it is also a good idea to
check that survey against yours. You can include names and dates from markers on
the WPA survey that were missing or no longer visible when you conducted your
survey. Put them at the bottom of your survey and list them as such.
Some
Do's and Don'ts from other surveyors:
1. Don't consume too many liquids before or during your cemetery outing. Cemeteries are not equipped with restrooms.
2.
Don't survey a cemetery during or after a rain. Wet, squashy, earth and
leaves underneath your feet only add to the creepy feeling you sometimes get and
you could fall.
4.
It is best to do surveys in the early spring or late fall. The weather is
cooler and less chance of encountering snakes.
5.
Find out who has legal jurisdiction over the cemetery property and get
permission to be on the grounds before recording the data. Public
cemeteries don't usually require permission
6.
If the cemetery is abandoned, attempt to find out who owns the land the cemetery
is on and obtain permission from the legal owners to be on the property.
7.
Be careful when touching a tombstone. Some older ones are
loose and could fall over on you.
8.
Take a friend. You can get twice as much done in the same amount of time. Also,
one person can read the stones and the other record them.
9.
Watch where you sit. Poison ivy, ants and other crawling things love
cemeteries.
10.
If you can't read a name or date on the stone, don't guess. Use a "?" in place of the name or date on your records.
11.
Record the information on the tombstone exactly as it appears. Copy it
word for word, line for line. Keep the spelling, punctuation, etc., as it
appears on the stone. Resist the temptation to make corrections.
12.
If you have additional genealogical information for the individuals that
might be of interest, include that in a separate comments column.
13.
If your handwriting leaves a lot to be desired, it's a good idea to
print, especially if someone else is going to transcribe your survey.
14.
Hang on to your hand written originals. You never know when you might need to go
back and check something.
Suggested
Supplies:
Legal
pads: Lots of room to write and easy to control in high winds.
Clipboard:
Holds the legal pads. If someone sees you in the cemetery, they make you look
official.
Pens
or pencils: Take several.
Laptop
computer: Will replace all of the above. Make sure you have plenty of
battery life.
Cemetery
Hat: If you sunburn easily, this is a good idea.
Rubber
kneepads: These help those old knees when you have to get down close to read
a stone. They also help prevent grass stains.
Insect
Repellant: Almost a necessity in the spring and summer.
Fanny
Pack: A little out of style and may be hard to find now, but they stay
around your waist and are a good place to keep keys, pens and other stuff
you don't want to carry around.
Water
or other non-alcoholic beverages: Just remember rule #1.
Ice
chest: For those large
cemeteries that take all day.
Cell
phone: For keeping in touch with your loved ones and in case of emergency.
When
your survey is complete, enter your information into a computer database such as
Microsoft Works or Microsoft Access. If you don't have a database, you can use
any word processing software as long as it will save the information in a
"text" format. Then you can e-mail your completed survey to Dennis
Wilson. If the file is too large to e-mail, put the file on a disk,
1.44MB or Zip, and mail it to the HCGS at 3949 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN
37415.
We
will also accept hand written surveys. These will take much longer for us to get
on the web site because we will have to enter your data on computer.
For more information on cemetery transcriptions visit
The Association for Gravestone Studies
Help Us Record the History of Hamilton County