Part 3: Finding Burials for Formerly Enslaved People

Ellis McClure reading inscription at Fairview Cemetery, 2014

This is the last of a three part series highlighting resources that can help you identify the burial site for Emancipated ancestors and their children. In Part 2: Finding burials for formerly enslaved people, you learned about different types of historic cemeteries and how to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to find cemeteries using property records. Below you will learn about three more resources to discover burial sites.

Local history

Many cemeteries that no longer exist have been documented, and cemetery books are found among the local history and genealogy collections of the public library. Check out the library catalog of the library located in the area where your ancestor lived. County or parish cemetery books have indexes containing cemetery names or surnames of individuals buried in a cemetery. Librarians are also good resources for locating cemeteries or the history of families from a particular area.

Other places to check to learn more about local history are:

1. Local historical society
2. Local genealogical society
3. Local archives

The book, "Greenwood County Sketches," a local history book by Margaret Watson, proved to be quite helpful in learning about early cemeteries in Abbeville and Greenwood Counties, SC. It provides the histories of local families, early churches, and cemetery information. One early family mentioned descended from John Partlow. John Partlow was a large plantation owner and a devout Universalist. At the time he and his family attended worship services in Mount Moriah Baptist Church.

When John Partlow died, his family was not allowed to hold his funeral service at Mount Moriah because Universalists believed all people would be saved. His sons had a new church built in four weeks in 1844 and sent for a minister to deliver his eulogy. The name of this new church was Save All as given by Thomas Coleman Lipscomb who purchased the property when the Universalists eventually left the area. Coleman sold the property which became a burial ground for people of color from the mid 1800's to about 1966 according to surviving cemetery markers.

Probate records

Many times the final expenses for burying a loved one were paid from the proceeds of the estate. Chances are that you may find records showing payments for a plot, funeral home, clothing, or transportation. If the funeral home is mentioned, find out how to access those records to see if the burial site is mentioned. If the funeral home is no longer in business, ask funeral home directors who are currently in business to see if they know who is storing the records from the older funeral home. Also check the local library, historical society, or genealogical society.

Newspapers

A very productive way to learn about burial sites is to search old newspapers. Create a timeline of newspapers in a locality while accounting for boundary changes. Search for the most recent obituaries in the most recent editions of the newspapers. Use the U.S. Newspaper Directory at Chronicling America, 1690 to Present to discover all the various titles of newspapers to search in a given area.

As you move back in time, make note of the earlier cemeteries that are named. Figure out what burial sites people traditionally used for early burials. Search the following to glean what you can from the newspaper:

• obituaries for specific people to identify burial sites
• funeral homes for where they buried people
• early probate notices that may lead to maps and estate records
• early real estate sales transactions where cemeteries might have been
• articles naming early churches that may have had adjoining cemeteries

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Part 2: Finding Burials for Formerly Enslaved People

Fairview Cemetery, 2014

In Part 1: Finding burials for formerly enslaved people, you learned how to use the 1870 Census, death certificates and obituaries to discover the final resting place of emancipated ancestors and their descendants. The resources included below have also proved very helpful in determining burial sites.

Historic cemeteries

As you go through locating death certificates for family members who lived after the dawn of freedom, you will become familiar with the earliest burial places used by African Americans. Hopefully, you will put forth the extra effort to visit these cemeteries to determine if they are cared for and if the surviving graves have been documented. Do not expect to see all modern headstones in these early burial places. Some ancestors may only have a blank field stone to mark where they were buried. In some cases, you will only see depressions in the ground where graves have sunk deep.

It can be disheartening to find overgrown cemeteries or desecrated graves. Any effort you put forth to identify undocumented graves will be greatly appreciated by living descendants who are tracing their family history. Headstones crumble and deteriorate. If no record of burials exist in the local library or on Find A Grave, there is a risk that whatever still survives will not be available in the future.

If you could not find a death certificate for your ancestor's burial, check the following places:

• Historic cemeteries – It is not uncommon to find burial sites (often unkempt) of formerly enslaved people or their descendants laid to rest in Confederate cemeteries or cemeteries which were part of now extinct communities.

• The property where your ancestor lived during enslavement – Many plantations had a burial site for deceased people who were enslaved, and they used this burial site to lay descendants to rest long after freedom came.

• Church site of the former owner – If the former owner had a cemetery on the church site, check the grounds for burials of African Americans.

• Early church site of emancipated ancestor – Many African American communities put their money together to purchase land for churches and a burial site of their own if they were not allowed to be buried in the traditional places they used prior to Emancipation.

• Ancestor's land – Often the land acquired by the freedmen became a early burial spot for family members

• Pauper cemetery – Donated land or land designated to be used as a burial place for the less fortunate became the burial spot for African Americans who were destitute.

• State hospital cemetery – African Americans confined to state or mental hospitals can be found to be buried in the cemetery on the grounds.

• State prison – African Americans who died while incarcerated were often buried in the cemeteries owned by the state prison.

• Private land – Many early lands owned by African Americans after enslavement were lost. Trace the deeds to these properties to determine the current owners. If there is a burial spot or cemetery on private land, this will require permission of the current owner to gain access.

Land records

If you have narrowed down the community where your ancestor lived until death, check to see if the local government has a local Geographic Information System (GIS). Search for the property using the current owner's name or the parcel identification number. You should be able to locate the deed and the plat map for the property online. You might also find a record of the previous owners and land surveys. Sometimes cemeteries are included in the property surveys. This has been one very successful way of identifying forgotten and undocumented cemeteries.

Try looking up the name, Joe Wah, on the Greenwood GIS. You will see a parcel for a cemetery connected to Joe Wah. It is Fairview Cemetery (Parcel number: 6856-442-485) which not too long ago was almost totally undocumented. In the process of documenting Fairview Cemetery, it was discovered that many people interred there had lived through being enslaved.

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Finding Burials for Formerly Enslaved People

Fairview Cemetery, April 2014

It is very common these days for the descendants of ancestors who held enslaved people to have a desire to know what became of the emancipated people who were connected with their family. Descendants of people of color who were enslaved have great challenges as they seek to discover their history. Often, both groups are interested in locating the burial place of formerly enslaved people and their descendants, and this is a guide to resources that can reveal the final resting place.

1870 Census

First, begin by locating the emancipated person on the 1870 Census. Search the households nearby to determine if a person who could have been the former owner (or descendants of the owner) is living nearby. Henry Sims, his wife Scillar and their children appear on the 1870 Census in Fishdam, Union, South Carolina. It was common knowledge among the descendants of Martha (daughter of Henry and Scillar) that their former owner was James Anderson Tucker. Martha's mother was his cook.

Right next door to Henry on the 1870 Census is J. A. Tucker and his wife Anna. You will not always find the emancipated person using the same surname as the person who enslaved him, but sometimes you will. The reason that you want to locate the former owner and the formerly enslaved person on the 1870 Census is because this will help you locate possible burial sites used before and after emancipation. Burial sites for formerly enslaved people could be found on university campuses, pauper cemeteries, church cemeteries, city cemeteries, owner's land, land deeded to the newly freed people.

Death certificates

You may not be accustomed to thinking about looking for a death certificate for an emancipated person or their children, but many lived well past the time death certificates were first recorded. If you are fortunate, you will be able to locate a death certificate. Death certificates often mention the place of burial. You may not recognize the place mentioned. If this is the case, you will need to research historical cemeteries, local history, local maps, or deeds to discover more about the burial site and its location.

After researching all the death certificates in Greenwood County from 1915 to 1962, it was discovered that African Americans were buried but not documented in Tabernacle Cemetery. One of the death certificates were for Mack Goggins who was born about 1881. Mack's death certificate clearly states that he was buried in Tabernacle.

This discovery led to his father, Columbus Goggins, who was the oldest living member of St. Paul AME Church before his death. Columbus, his wife, and several children are buried in Tabernacle Cemetery. Columbus was born about 1845, and he has a marker at Tabernacle. It is fortunate there is a marker for Columbus because no death certificate has been located. This was the first clue this researcher had that led to several more burials of formerly enslaved people and their descendants.

If you discover the burial ground of formerly enslaved people, do not assume it has been fully documented. Search the cemetery, obituaries, and death certificates to learn more. Be sure to share what you learn with the local library.

Obituaries

African Americans should search the local newspaper for obituaries for emancipated ancestors. Many believe that they will not find an ancestor mentioned because of the challenges faced in the early and mid 1900's. This line of reasoning did not hold true for scores of obituaries found in the Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina) from 1898 and beyond which helped to document hundreds of burials in Fairview Cemetery. Not many headstones remain in Fairview, so without the discovery of obituaries and death certificates many emancipated ancestors and their children would have been forever forgotten. See A Surprise Waiting Deep in Fairview. 

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