Sharon DeBartolo Carmack illuminates the fascinating practice of cemetery
research, from determining an ancestor's final resting place to decoding
mysterious headstone symbols. You'll learn how cemeteries can help fill the
holes in your precious family history, including how to:
- Determine when and where a person died
- Locate the exact cemetery in which a family or individual is interred
- Analyze headstones and markers
- Interpret funerary art and tombstone iconography, including symbols,
epitaphs and inscriptions
- Safely make a rubbing or a cast of headstone and markers
- Conduct cemetery surveys
- Use cemeteries to find your living relatives
As this book is published in America, you'll gain a comprehensive overview of
American burial customs, attitudes toward death, and funeral rites for a variety
of ethnic and religious groups.
The authors also includes dozens of helpful sidebars and appendixes that examine
gravestone art, symbols, and emblems, plus a medical glossary and historical
time line of deadly diseases and epidemics. It's all you need to dig up the
family history facts you've been looking for.
Contents:
Foreword
Introduction
1. Record of Death
2. Locating Graves, Cemeteries and Their Records
3. Searching a Cemetery
4. Bringing Home a Tombstone--Legally!
5. Cryptic Clues in the Bone Yard
6. American Burial Customs and Folkways
7. Ethnic and Religious Funeral and Burial Customs
8. Cemetery Projects and Preservation
9. Making Cemeteries a Family Affair
Appendix A. Gravestone Art, Symbols, Emblems, and Attributes
Appendix B. Historical Time Line of Deadly Diseases, Epidemics, and Disasters in
America 1516-1981
Appendix C. Historical Medical Glossary for Causes of Death
Appendix D. A Case Study Using Obituaries as Family Histories
Appendix E. Cemetery Transcription Forms
Bibliography
Index
Review:... the most comprehensive book to date helping genealogists get the most
out of cemeteries ... at the same time celebrating their art, history, and
beauty. Well worth the buy -- Steve Johnson, Interment.net
Highly informative, covering a number of areas in great detail, and
offering information otherwise not found in genealogy resources today --
William Spurlock, Saving Graves
