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Little Known Burial Sites & Cemeteries Etowah Co. AL

Little Known Burial Sites and Cemeteries Etowah County Alabama – Whites, Blacks and Indians Incdlues A Few From Nearby Counties (Blount, Cherokee, DeKalb, Marshall and St. Clair) – compiled by W.A. Lewis, edited by Lucinda Evans

Review published October 25, 2012

About the book & Its Contents

~ from the Dedication & Acknowledgements and Introduction

“This 277 page book plus index & appendix was several years in the making. Over 180 cemeteries and 4,800 names are listed.

One of the fascinating segments of this book are scattered ‘epitaphs’. Make sure you read the complete 7-page Introduction before the rest of the book. Informative but some portions are humorous.”

Date of publication Unknown
After 1992

Cemetery Listing: Known cemeteries have location information and a list of the people buried if known. List includes Date of Birth & Death.When other information has been found aboutn an individual, that has been included as well.

Unknown Cemeteries:
» 12 Black cemeteries are listed. Locations are given as well as any information known. Names of those buried are given when available.
» 3 Indian cemeteries are listed. Note that one of the Black cemeteries may be Indian.
» 40 other cemeteries are listed with any information known.Four cemeteries were added just before the index.

Appendix: An appendix was added later with further information & a few corrections.

The compilation at the Nichols Memorial Library and available for purchase. Contact any librarian while visiting the library or see Books & Publications.

This book and many others like it are available for you to research onsite at the Nichols Memorial Library.

Look at ALL the Fields in a Census

Being focused when doing genealogy research is a good thing — except when that focus costs finding an important clue.

When looking at a census record, we tend to focus on one person or one family & do not look at the other families on the page. In assisting someone (from out-of-state, btw) in Nichols Library Thursday, we found when we looked at the WHOLE page that the person in question owned a sawmill.

SHE, yes–a woman, employed one person from her household. As head of the family, it also suggests she was widowed.

But,

No Kids, Never Had Siblings, & Died With Some Cash

Is there a relative who never had any children of their own, had no siblings and died owning enough property to require a probate or an estate settlement?

If so, the records of that settlement may be particularly interesting. The deceased person’s heirs-at-law typically would have been their first cousins or their first cousin’s descendants. Even if there was a will, these heirs-at-law typically would have had to have been notified of the probate. Those records could help determine relationships and indicate where people were living at the time the relative died.

These estate or probate records would typically be filed at the local court level.

Do You Hear It Yourself?

Sometimes “seeing” a clue is not about seeing at all. Do you ever read a document or record “out loud?” There are times when just saying something or hearing yourself say something makes a clue or piece of information “click.”

Talking to yourself a little bit never hurts and it may cause you to realize things that were not so clear when you simply read them silently.

Turn the Page

When a document is located on a relative, look at the pages before and after the document for additional references to your relative. Deeds sometimes get recorded in “batches,” when it is realized that they were forgotten. Children sometimes get baptized in groups when a minister finally arrives or someone decides it is time.

And occasionally there is a supplemental death certificate when a correction needs to be made.

Indexes will take you to a direct, exact page. It’s up to you to turn a few pages before and after that page to see if there’s an additional find.