Arkansas Cemeteries

United States Cemeteries Arkansas 

Cemetery records, such as tombstone and sexton’s records, have value in that they may give birth and death dates, age at death, name of spouse and children, a maiden name or, occasionally, a birthplace.

Tombstones may have symbols or insignias indicating military service and social or religious affiliations.

It is important to look at surrounding tombstones because family members may also be buried nearby.


 * Cemetery Records of Arkansas, Volumes 1-8, 11 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society, 1957. . A digital version of volume 6 (Columbia and Faulkner counties) at


 * Daughters of the American Revolution (Arkansas). Arkansas Genealogical Collection. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1970-71. This collection includes tombstone inscriptions from Arkansas cemeteries.

Many tombstone inscriptions have been published in periodicals or are available in manuscript form at local repositories. A guide to help you locate these and the inscriptions in the DAR collection is:


 * Index to Sources for Arkansas Cemetery Inscriptions. North Little Rock, Arkansas: Daughters of the American Revolution, 1976.

Cemetery records often include birth, marriage, and death information and clues to military service, religion, membership in an organization, and more.

Online
The following have significant cemetery listings for Arkansas State. Sites may be incomplete. They may not list all cemeteries in a county and may not include all burials in a cemetery.


 * Findagrave.com home page. Often has tombstone images.
 * Search for names across all Arkansas cemeteries in Find A Grave.
 * Statewide list of cemeteries in Find A Grave. Select Arkansas then select a county. Search each cemetery on the list for names.
 * Web: Arkansas, Find A Grave Index, 1809-2012 (If the link does not work, go to ancestry.com ($), click Search, select Card Catalog, paste Title into search box, click Search)


 * Interment.net
 * Lists of cemeteries in the counties.
 * Typed lists of tombstone information.


 * Linkpendium scours the Internet for resources.
 * Links to cemetery databases on other sites.
 * Many cemeteries individually searchable.


 * USGenWEb tombstone Transcriptions - Arkansas
 * List of cemeteries by county.
 * Typed lists of tombstone information.
 * USGenWeb Tombstone Photo Project - Arkansas


 * Arkansas Gravestones
 * Search by name or browse by cemetery.


 * Rootsweb **Cemetery lists on Arkansas county pages.


 * African American Cemeteries Online (Arkansas)
 * Cemeteries by County
 * Resources for churches, funeral homes, newspapers and death records.


 * I Dream of Genealogy (Free)
 * Lists of cemeteries by county.
 * Typed lists of tombstone information.


 * Arkansas Cemeteries at Daddezio.com
 * Lists of cemeteries or search by the name of the cemetery. Cannot narrow by county.
 * Typed lists of tombstone information.


 * BillionGraves.com
 * Search by going to "under filter by state" and put in Arkansas and the surname.
 * Lists of cemeteries by county, with # of entries in Billion Graves site.


 * Access Genealogy Cemetery
 * Lists of cemeteries by county and State and has African American Records.


 * Deathindexes.com-Arkansas by Joe Beine
 * Lists of cemeteries by county.


 * KindredTrails.com Arkansas Cemeteries
 * Links to other sites, searches of sponsored sites.

See also Cyndi's List links to databases on other sites.

Published Transcriptions
Many tombstones have been damaged over time by weathering, excavation, vandalism, and so on. As a result, earlier transcriptions may be more accurate and more complete.

Fortunately, early transcriptions may be found in periodicals. Individuals and societies also published cemetery indexes in book form.


 * 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 slide down to select the county.
 * Or do a Place Name 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 and information.

The Cemetery Records Gold Mine
Cemetery tombstones, or sexton's records, usually give death date, and age or birth date. Sometimes they give birth place. Spouse and children who died young are often buried nearby.

Use cemetery records to:


 * Identify children who died young or who were not recorded in birth or death records.
 * Establish family relationships and learn of family members.
 * Find clues that lead you to other records about the person. For example:
 * 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.