How to Read a Cemetery Profile
A CemeteryRegistry.us profile is a record of a place—the burying ground—not a list of who is buried there. Use Find A Grave or a sexton book for names. Use the profile to judge whether you can find the ground, who it belonged to, and how much weight to put on the dates.
Status first.
Verified means the location has been confirmed from maps, documents, and, when possible, an on-site GPS reading. Extra fields may be filled in. Location Not Verified means the cemetery is in the registry so you can find the name, but the pin may be incomplete or wrong. Do not plan a drive on an unverified coordinate.
Established date and First / Oldest Burial.
These are not the same fact.
- Established is the date the cemetery is documented as organized, platted, deeded, chartered, or otherwise opened as a cemetery. For many private or family grounds there was no registration requirement, and some owners never filed anything. In those cases the established date is still the best-supported date the tract began to be used—or was recognized—as a cemetery. That may rest on a deed, a family account, a marker, tax or map labeling, or later documentation. It remains an opening / recognition date, not automatically the date of the first grave.
- First / Oldest Burial is the earliest burial we can document on that ground. It is an evidence date. It can be earlier than “established,” later, or missing.
They often disagree. Common reasons:
- Burials on the tract before a church, town, or company formally opened the cemetery.
- A private ground that was never registered, so “established” is inferred from use or later paperwork rather than a charter.
- An older ground taken over by a new congregation, municipality, or cemetery association; the successor’s “established” date is the takeover, not the first grave.
- Paper delayed: the cemetery was in use while the deed, plat, or charter lagged.
- The opposite gap: a founding or recognition date is on record, but the earliest surviving marker or register is years later. Stones fail, registers burn, and early graves were never marked.
When the first documented burial is before the established date, treat established as the organization or recognition date, not the first use of the land. When the first documented burial is after the established date, do not assume the cemetery sat empty. It often means lost records—especially on unregistered private grounds.
Empty fields mean the date is not yet supported—not that no one was buried there.
Affiliation.
Affiliation describes who the cemetery was tied to (municipal, family, church, ethnic, military, and so on). The type list was tightened so similar grounds use the same labels. Definitions are here:
https://cemeteryregistry.us/home/cemetery-affiliation-types-definitions-characteristics
Unknown means the records and the ground do not support a confident label. It is not a separate kind of cemetery.
Before you visit.
Confirm access and current ownership. Verified GPS on this site is taken at the center of the cemetery, not the gate. Entrances move when roads, fences, or parking change. A center point is more stable and still puts you on the tract. It also helps when one cemetery contains others: the pin marks the ground you searched, not whichever driveway happens to be in use this year. Walk from the pin to the current entrance. Treat the coordinate as a field start point, not a survey monument.
— Doyle Glaze, CemeteryRegistry.us
