NOTES: JACKSON CO., WV CEMETERIES This file is part of the WV Tombstone Transcription Project http://www.usgwtombstones.org/westvirg/westvirg.html ******************************************************** http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm ******************************************************** Contributed to the USGenWeb Archives by: George W. Archer (garcher@wdn.com) READ ME! TO GET THE BEST USE OF THIS INDEX This is not a standard every-name index. It is an analytical index that uses extensive cross- referencing of names to ensure that you can find anyone anywhere in this book. Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy and completeness of the text and index. The index was compiled using a combination of an index generation module in WordPerfect (5.1 for DOS) and cross-checking three versions of that index against an editing control index maintained manually after detecting input and text conversion errors while marking the text for the computer-generated index or saving files. The marked-up master copy of the final text through seven drafts over six weeks from auditing the audio tape against a draft transcription down to the final printable version. These are the rules I used to index the book: Female Names: (f) or Mrs. - assigned when there was evidence that an unusual given name was a woman or that she was a married woman from the evidence on the stones themselves or from added information from other sources that are cited with the stone reading itself. Women whose given and middle names were initials were cross-indexed to a full name if there was sufficient evidence from the stones in the plot or elsewhere. If there was evidence, the names were cross-indexed using this model: PALMER - S., Mrs. (see Mrs. Susan PALMER). Mrs., ? - used when a woman was buried on a joint stone and had an age spread of within ten years of the man she was buried with and had his surname. It is possible she was a single child of someone in the same family, hence the "?". Mrs. - Based on stone evidence that clearly identified her as "Mother", "Wife" All women with a middle name on their stone were cross-indexed to the middle name as if it were a maiden name. The last name was used as a married name and assigned "Mrs.?" following the rule above. Do not use this index as proof that the middle name was indeed a maiden name. It could have been a first marriage surname, following the 20th Cent. custom of listing left to right all of the married surnames. The cross-indexing may help identify or give a clue to the maiden name. The maiden names were NOT cross-referenced to a married name, as there was insufficient evidence to support this linkage, and a researcher more often knows only the married name of a woman but not the maiden name. The convention followed in the index to cross reference a married name to a maiden name Possible stones: Jane SMITH BROWN (on the stone) or Jane SMITH BROWN, second wife of John BROWN How they appear in the index: BROWN, Jane Mrs. (see Jane SMITH) The first marriage may or may not be to a SMITH, but the index will treat the SMITH surname as a maiden name on the assumption that the family of the second marriage would not normally record her married surname on a joint stone with her second husband or in his plot. Male Names: All male names are indexed as they appeared on the stones following these rules: Initials for the given and middle names were cross-indexed to a full name, and vice versa, if there was sufficient evidence on the stones that they were the same person. This was most often born out by the same named person begin buried with a wife whose name and/or initials appear on children's stones. Military markers often in the same plot provided date information to corroborate that a separate stone with initials only was the same person. (m) - male - assigned based on the same rules that applied to women (f). The abbreviation (m) was always used when initials only appeared on stones of children using the assumption (unless otherwise contradicted by other evidence) that the father's initials were listed first on these stones. Other rules or conventions Alternate surnames are extensively cross-referenced with a "see" following the surname captions. There was wide variation in spellings due in part to family preferences, tombstone cutters' errors and my own mis-readings of some stones that were difficult to read. In extreme case of doubt as to the spelling of a given or surname that was in question, I consulted the 1976 Ripley telephone book, cemetery readings by others, published death records, and the "Jackson County History" published by the Jackson Co., WV Historical society (see Bibliography). If the stone was accurately transcribed from audio tape but was an odd or obviously misspelled name, it was so noted in the text, not the index, with "sic". Stones that were partially readable due to weathering or physical damage were indexed using whatever letters were readable and indexed in the approximate location where the partial name would have appeared in the index if whole. Isolated headstones and footstones not affiliated with a family plot or a specific marker are indexed under "____". Some of these headstones and footstones were clearly part of a grave with a marker. Others were not so associated. As an experiment to cross-reference some of these head and footstones, I tried to match some of the three letter head and footstones with a specific family but without success. Nick names are indexed as ordinary given names but cross-indexed to as many names or initials and surnames combinations as appeared on a stone or marker. Names of living, deceased and in added names from published sources of burial and death data are indexed if they appear in the main section of the stone readings text.