Saturday mornings, the Archive Center staff and volunteers make trips out into the county to document and record the tombstones found in Cape Girardeau County cemeteries. Our mission is to start with the smaller cemeteries of the county that have been abandoned for years and document them before they are forever lost to vandalism and vegetation growth. Toward the end of our project, we will document the large city cemeteries since they receive the most care and attention.
During the Summer months, we concentrate on church cemeteries and small family cemeteries that are mowed regularly. Mostly we look forward to the Winter months when the vegetation has died off and the bugs have gone dormant. During this time, we can better brave the woods in search of neglected cemeteries.
While in the cemetery, each stone is cleaned following the City of Cape Girardeau Cemetery Cleaning Handbook and then photographed at high resolution. Latitude and Longitude coordinates are then recorded along with the tombstone’s row and order number for future generations to be able to personally visit.
The end goal of our project is to produce a series of books, divided by township location, of Cape Girardeau County cemeteries. Large city cemeteries, such as Memorial Park and Lorimier Cemeteries, will each be featured in their own book. The books will contain an alphabetical listing of persons buried in each township along with a small picture of each respective tombstone. 8”x10” colored prints will be available for purchase by contacting the Archive Center.
Our biggest challenge has been the destruction of small cemeteries. Many of the ones we have visited have stones missing. Often bases are left behind telling us that someone is buried in that location. Old tombstones that date back to the early 1800s are the only physical proof that these people existed. Birth and death certificates were only required beginning in the mid-1900s making tombstones extremely important to genealogists. If you know of tombstones that have been moved out of cemeteries, please contact us. The Archive Center contains several indexes to all the Cape Girardeau County Cemeteries. We are more than willing to assist in the recovery of headstones and placement at their proper location with no questions asked.
If you are interested in volunteering your services to help document tombstones, please send us an email that includes which cemeteries you're interested in helping out with.
List of Currently Known Cape Girardeau County Cemeteries
List of Completed Cape Girardeau County Cemeteries
Newspaper Articles
Southeast Missourian December 7, 2009
Southeast Missourian March 8, 2010
Southeast Missourian