Family History Clues from Cemeteries

A trip to the cemetery can prove very productive when you are looking for information about the people in your Family Tree. Tombstones provide dates of birth and death, and may include evidence of an individual’s military service, or fraternal affiliations.

The tall monument below is at Oakland Cemetery, a memorial to three local pastors who died in the Cholera Epidemic in Sandusky.

The Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library has a variety of sources about local cemeteries. The ERIE COUNTY, OHIO CEMETERY CENSUS BEFORE 1909, edited by Katharyn Huss Wunderly and Patty Dahm Pascoe, lists cemetery inscriptions from over sixty cemeteries located in Erie County. You will also find cemetery records from Ottawa County, Huron County, and other counties in the Archives Research Center. Housed with the microfilm cabinet are several rolls of film which contain cemetery records of Erie County. The cemetery microfilming project took place in 1989, and are arranged by location.

There are many web sites on the Internet which contain cemetery records. Two well known sites are: http://www.findagrave.com/ and http://www.interment.net/.

Also found in the Archives Research Center is a limited number of photographs from area cemeteries. Pictured below is a photograph of the tombstones of four members of the Cooke family, buried in North Monroeville. These individuals were related to Eleutheros Cooke, Sandusky’s first lawyer.
A Confederate Civil War Cemetery is located on Johnson’s Island. This photograph was taken about 1910.


Visit the Sandusky Library for more information about local cemetery records.