Oak Ridge Cemetery MN

Let's talk cemetery records.

Most cemeteries, including Oak Ridge, have pretty good data records dating back to 1857, but there are plenty of gaps that are not yet filled in, such as accurate dates of birth and full legal names.

During the “off-season” we not only try to fill in these gaps using online resources, but also try to uncover photos, stories, and family connections. It's rather fun and very satisfying discovering things long since gone or hidden, and adding these to the records.

There are generally 2 types of records cemeteries must keep. The first is gravesite ownership records and the second is burial records.

Gravesite ownership records identify original deed sales as well as subsequent deed transfers. Gravesites are considered real estate thus each gravesite has a deed. Deed transfers can happen through cross-party sales or inheritance, much like a car title. You must have the deed to be buried in the right site. Many purchased deeds never get used.

Burial records are equally important and are filled in when burials occur. Ideally the person's full legal name, maiden name, birth date, death date, burial date, and gravesite location information are identified, as well as any notes. It's these burial records that turn out to be the least accurate and are often incomplete, as most of the original data is provided by “the family” and they don't always have it right at the time. It's these records where online research later can be used to verify and/or correct the current records.

There is a third form of burial records out there and these are in the form of public-domain websites. The most popular are Find-A-Grave and Billion Graves. These sites get their information using “crowd-sourcing” where records are populated by graveyard enthusiasts, genealogists, cemetery managers like us, and others. The great thing about these sites is people today can post photos of the person and their gravestones, add bio and obituary text, and create links to grave listings of the person's parents, spouses, and children … creating a pseudo family tree of sorts.

We've opted to sync our burial record data to Find-A-Grave so that the our most current data is reflected correctly on that site. People are finding that Find-A-Grave listings are of tremendous historical value allowing families and others to learn about past people's lives and who they were connected to. A lot of family tree “gaps” can be filled-in this way too. It's such a good resource and it's free.

So now let's look at a recent record keeping example. Per our ownership records, on May 5th 1878 three gravesites were purchased in plot D-83 by Mr. John H. Stevens for $10 each. It turns out his beloved 3 year old daughter Angie had died just 3 weeks prior, prompting the purchase. Our burial records however did not have her birth date, her full legal name, nor her actual burial date. We do know that she was indeed buried in the southernmost of the 3 gravesites in D-83 since that is where a youth-style marble headstone for her was placed.

Using online tools we were able to determine her actual birth date because her headstone said she lived 3 years 10 months and 15 days, making her birth date thus 26 May 1874. We've now added this date to our burial records as well as added it to her Find-A-Grave listing, so at least that “gap” in her record has now been filled.

We then noticed that little Angie's Find-A-Grave listing was correctly linked to her parents graves, also located in D-83, but also notice there was a 4th “Stevens” buried in D-83. But they only bought 3 sites though! Huh?

Well, it turns out that this person was her brother John Bard Stevens, who died in 1907 at age 26. His Find-A-Grave listing was not yet linked to his parents or to Angie's, and it also lacked his birth date. Well again, with some online “digging” we found his birth information as well as a record of his tragic death (see article). We've now linked him to his parents and sister on Find-A-Grave, as well as filled in a few gaps in our own cemetery records for him.

To complete their story, son John's dismembered remains were placed in a small youth casket and placed in the same southernmost plot in D-83 with his dear sister Angie. They were joined later by their Father John in 1914 (age 67) and then Mother Lucy in 1928 (age 84). Father John was a house painter and they lived in Faribault from 1875-1908. Our research also uncovered birth dates for both parents, as well as found Father John's obituary, to help fill out some of the gaps in their own publicly visible records. Their Find-A-Grave listings have been updated accordingly.

So now you can see it's both useful and satisfying to do research to fill-in-the-blanks in the official cemetery records as well as discover and share related information on Find-A-Grave to more completely paint the historical record of people's lives. We now know much more about the Stevens family than we did before, and rest their souls.

If you have an interest in helping us with records work, just send us a message on Facebook Messenger, and we'll get you started. You never know what you will uncover!

Everyone deserves to be remembered.