Instructions for Surveying a Cemetery and
Submitting the Transcription to the USGenWeb Archives/Tombstone Project


First, thank you for even thinking about helping in this project to help preserve our Tombstone heritage.  
This can be a trying, tiring, but very rewarding endeavor.

If you are using a survey done by someone else, that person or institution owns a copyright of the material 
if it is less than 50 to 75 years old.  You will need their permission, in writing, before we can use it.  
Any updates you have for the cemetery would be your copyright.  If you walk the cemetery in its entirety 
and transcribe it, it is your copyright as well.

When you transcribe a cemetery, ALWAYS record the tombstones in the order you found them.  DO NOT 
ALPHABETIZE your listing.  Not all Smiths or Browns, for example, are related to each other.  By having 
these in order found, you may be able to tell family groupings.  Good genealogical practice is to record 
all information as found.  This applies to cemeteries as well.

DO NOT make any additions or corrections to the actual information you have recorded.  You may know that 
Mollie Smith actually died in 1888, not 1889, as recorded on the tombstone, but don't make that change.  
Again, good genealogical practice is to record information as found.  

If you choose to use the automated system (highly recommended as it is faster), you may make additions or 
corrections by placing the information in the comments window at the end of each entry.  Place the 
information in parenthesis ( ) to indicate you have added this information.

If you are not using the automated system, after you have all your information in your computer, you can 
show additions/corrections after each tombstone entry by placing that information in parenthesis.  Or, you 
may add a group of information at the end of the file.  YOU MUST, however, NOTE at the top of the file that 
these additions/corrections you have made were added by you.  VERY IMPORTANT!  Also, please be sure that 
each person has his or her own first and last name.  For example, you found John and Mary Humphrey in the 
cemetery.  They are on one stone.  You should certainly designate that they are on one stone, but be sure 
that John and Mary each have their own last name.  Here is what it should look like:

Humphrey, John, b. Apr 12, 1837, d. Sept. 17, 1899, same stone with Mary Humphrey
Humphrey, Mary, b. Mar. 3, 1842, d. Aug. 21, 1903, same stone with John Humphrey

The reason for each person having their own last name is so the search engine that searches the Archives 
can find Mary Humphrey and John Humphrey.  

If for some reason there is no last name, in the case of broken headstones, then you must enter the word 
"unknown" as the last name and add in comments that last name was missing from the stone.

To add your survey to the USGenWeb Archives and Tombstone project, please use the automated system at:

http://www.genrecords.org/stfiles/

or

http://www.poppet.org/stfiles/

where you replace st with the two letter postal abbreviation for the state you are working on.  For 
example:  for Mississippi you would substitute  ms  for  st  and have

http://www.genrecords.org/msfiles

or 

http://www.poppet.org/msfiles


The system has instructions for its use.  You can enter your cemetery a bit at a time and the system will 
store the listing until you are finished.  It will also upload the file when you are finished 
automatically; no more waiting to see your work online.  

Once you have entered all the tombstone entries enter any additional information in the field at the 
bottom.

Next choose a county, there are options to choose more than one county but please remember that the only 
time this should be done is if the cemetery lies directly on a county line. Otherwise the cemetery needs to 
only be filed in the county where it is located.

Next choose whether this survey is a complete survey or if it is partial survey. If you are planning to 
continue adding names at a later date please choose "Partial Survey More to Come."  If you are only adding 
a few names and this is all that you have yet it's not a complete list of everyone in the cemetery, please 
choose "Partial Survey, No More to Come". This will then be entered on the file and researchers will know 
whether there will be more forthcoming or not.

Be sure you have filled in the fields at the top of the form with your Email Address, First and Last name, 
Abstracted By, Cemetery Title and Cemetery Description and location.

Then click submit and your transcription will automatically be formatted and sent to the archives manager 
for that county.

The Tombstone Project will have to add a link to the table of contents page, but the listing itself can be 
found by using the following link format:

http://files.usgwarchives.net/st/county/cemeteries/

Replace the st with the two letter postal code for the state and county with the county the cemetery is in, 
using all lower case letters.  You will see a list of cemeteries and you can find yours as the most recent 
one added to the list.

It is really easy once you have done it.  

If you cannot use the automated system for some reason, you will have to send it to the person 
administering that county.

I hope you enjoy your experience and find it very rewarding.  Thank you again for volunteering and happy 
hunting.


Carolyn Golowka
The USGenWeb Tombstone Project – Tombstone Photo Manager
The USGenWeb Archives Project - Alabama File Manger

Debra Crosby
The USGenWeb Tombstone Project – Tombstone Photo Assistant Manater
The USGenWeb Archives Project – Assistant File Assistant Manager