Stories in Stone
Preserving History One Gravestone At A Time
A recent update apparently broke the Burial Search function. We believe this has been resolved.
If you encounter any issues using any of the search functions, please let us know through the Contact page.
Cemeteries
are the "Great American Novel" and every gravestone represents a chapter
in that novel. This site is our effort in writing a portion of that
novel by documenting cemeteries and preserving the stories of those
individuals buried in them.
Of the six counties (Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, and Essex) that comprise the "North Country" of New York, we focus on Jefferson and Lewis Counties. Additionally as we travel the migration routes into Jefferson County, we also visit cemeteries along the route that brought pioneers into the area. Consequently you will also find information on several cemeteries in Oswego County. Our goal is to help preserve the rich history of this portion of the North Country and to assist you in your family research.
Gravestone Photographs
We focus our efforts on documenting cemeteries by photographing every monument, headstone, footstone, and stone fragment in each of the cemeteries that we visit. This provides not only a "snap shot in time" of what the cemetery looks like, but also enables us to to help you in documenting your family history. Towards that end, we will provide any gravestone photo that we have in our collection free of any charge. If you find our site and the photos we provide helpful in your research, we request that you consider making a donation to a not-for-profit organization such as a historical society, cemetery association, museum, or similar organization. These organizations are at the forefront of preserving the history of our country and have provided an invaluable amount of support in our efforts of documenting cemeteries and telling the stories of those individuals buried in them.
The Graves of Veterans
So many have sacrificed so much in the defense of our great county. One aspect of our documenting cemeteries is to identify as many graves of veterans as possible. While organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Daughters of the War of 1812, various Civil War organizations, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) have contributed enormously to the identification, preservation, and honoring of the graves of veterans, there are too many veterans whose graves have not been documented or honored. In order to pay respect to those who gave so much ensuring our way of life, we dedicate a significant portion of our research effort on identifying the graves of all veterans. In order to accomplish the identification of veterans graves, we need your help. It's not always possible to determine if an individual was a veteran based on gravestones alone and historical records are woefully incomplete. If you know of a veteran buried in either Jefferson or Lewis County that we don't have listed, please let us know through the Contact page, so we can get them properly annotated.
Friends of Muskalonge Cemetery
The last work party to be held at Muskalonge Cemetery (Town of Hounsfield) for 2010 will be Saturday, September 11th. If you have a few hours to give, please know the Friends of the Muskalonge cemetery are deeply appreciative. We plan to finish up base work (foundations) and broken headstones in the front part of the cemetery, where the work initially began.
The Friends of Muskalonge cemetery invite members of the community to join them in this effort. If you have any questions, or would like to join the Friends Group, you may call Representative, Beverly Sterling-Affinati at 408-0884 or you may contact us through our Contact page.
Historical Collections and Studies
As part of our effort to document cemeteries and capture the stories of the individuals interred in them, we make extensive use of historical records. The census, baptisms, deaths, marriages, family histories, tax rolls, directories, and studies are aides we use to better understand each of the stories represented by gravestones. Information in each of the collections is under continuous review to catch errors and refine information as we develop better methods of interpreting and presenting the data. Also you may want to return periodically as we are always on the search for new sources of information. The News page provides a list of projects underway as well as those that have been recently completed.
We sincerely hope you enjoy your stay and find the information beneficial. Requests for specific information. sources or to report errors encountered on the site, please contact us via the Contact page.
Suggestions / comments on how to make this site more usable are greatly appreciated and can be forwarded using the Contact page.