Washington Cemeteries

United States Washington  Cemeteries  See United States Cemeteries for more detail.

Cemetery records often include birth, marriage, and death information. They sometimes provide clues about military service, religion, or membership in an organization.

Online
The following have significant cemetery listings for Washington State.


 * Findagrave.com home page. Often tombstone images.
 * Searchable transcriptions across all Washington entries. Narrow search by county, if desired.
 * Lists of cemeteries, searchable one at a time. Narrow search by county.
 * I Dream of Genealogy (Free)
 * Lists of cemeteries by county.
 * All are linked to viewable transcriptions.
 * Washington Cemetery Records (Free) at Washington Genealogy. Easy to navigate.
 * Lists of cemeteries by county.
 * Some links to viewable transcriptions.
 * USGenWeb Tombstone Project - Washington
 * List of cemeteries by county.
 * Transcriptions viewable for several cemeteries.
 * Washington State Cemetery Association
 * Intending to document every site. Needs volunteers.
 * Database has been transferred to FindAGrave (listed above)
 * Interment.net
 * Lists of cemeteries in the counties.
 * Transcriptions viewable.
 * D'Addezio.com Washington Cemeteries
 * Lists of cemeteries or search by the name of the cemetery. Cannot narrow by county.
 * Transcriptions viewable.
 * BillionGraves.com
 * Searchable at state or county level, images of tombstones.
 * Lists of cemeteries by county, with # of entries in Billion Graves site.
 * KindredTrails.com Washington Cemeteries
 * Links to other sites, searches of sponsored sites.

See also Cyndi's List and Linkpendium

Published Transcriptions
Many online listings have been done in the past 20 years or so. Early transcriptions may be published separately or in periodicals.


 * Find transcripts of cemetery records for in the FamilySearch Library Catalog. Most are filed at the county or state level.
 * For counties, simply add a comma to the search box and select the county... or search for "Washington, [county]."
 * For towns, select the county, add a comma, and select the town.


 * A valuable published collection of tombstone inscriptions covering parts of 12 counties is Cemetery Records of Washington, Six Volumes. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society, 1957-60.).
 * v. 1. Lewis and Benton counties -- v. 2. King, Klickitat, and Pierce counties -- v. 3. King, Klickitat, Pierce, Skamania, Snohomish and Thurston counties -- v. 4. King, Klickitat and Pierce counties -- v. 5. Island, Kitsap, Lewis and Pierce counties -- v. 6. Cowlitz, Pierce and Thurston counties.

See United States Cemeteries for further suggestions on locating cemetery records.

Those Valuable Cemetery Records
Use cemetery records to:


 * Identify children who died young or who were not recorded in birth or death records.
 * Establish family relationships and locate family members.
 * Learn a person's religious affiliations, military service, or social (Masonic, fraternal, or other) organizations the person joined.

Cemetery tombstones, or sexton's records, may give birth and death dates, age at death, name of spouse, names of children, and maiden names. Less often, they contain birth places.


 * Tombstones may have symbols or insignias indicating military service and social or religious affiliations.
 * There are also abbreviations that give clues when deciphered.
 * The Association of Gravestone Studies (AGS) has recommendations on the treatment and care of tombstones when needing to make inscriptions more visible.