Types of Cemeteries -by Rachel   

Church graveyard. The facts: 

  1. These were the first public cemeteries
  2. In Europe the elite were sometimes buried under the church’s stone floor.
  3. There were 570 vaults found under New York City churches.

Family burial plots. The facts:

  1. Families sometimes had their neighbors and relatives buried in their plots.
  2. Family burial plots were most common on southern plantations.
  3. One genealogist’s family plot was located at the end of a major airport’s runway!

Country cemeteries. The facts:

  1. When possible, these cemeteries were set on top of hills so as to keep it from floods.
  2. They often contain homemade or mail order markers.
  3. Rarely will you find large monuments in a country cemetery.

Garden cemeteries. The facts:

  1. As Americans grave outlook on death changed, garden cemeteries became popular.
  2. The first garden cemetery was called Mount Auburn Cemetery, and was created in 1831.
  3. The cemeteries look like parks with trees, flowers and benches.

Urban cemeteries .The facts:

  1. These cemeteries look like stone yards with many rows of tombstones, straight paths and little foliage.
  2. They are often large.
  3. Urban cemeteries are often public cemeteries.

Veteran’s cemetery. The facts:

  1. These are for the honorably discharged and their families.
  2. There are 119 national veterans cemeteries.
  3. Arlington National Cemetery is the best known.

Memorial park or lawn park cemetery. The facts:

  1. These are flat grassy lawns with barely any evidence that people were buried there.
  2. There are no grave mounds and the gravestones are flat to the ground.
  3. The first of these cemeteries was built in 1917 in southern California it is today called Forest Lawn.

Potter’s field. The facts:

  1. This is where counties or cities bury their poor, their unwanted, and also their criminals, suicides, and illegitimate babies.
  2. Sometimes there will be mass graves.
  3. Individual graves will either have no marker, or a temporary one provided by the funeral home or cemetery.

Pet cemeteries. The facts:

  1. People cannot be buried with their pets in pet cemeteries, but their cremains can be.
  2. Hartsdale pet cemetery boasts being America’s first prestigious pet cemetery.
  3. This is the final resting place of nearly seventy thousand pets!

 I obtained my information from: "Your Guide to Cemetery Research" written by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack.