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Cemeteries of Madison County, Vol. I, page ix
INTRODUCTION
A wholehearted attempt has been made to locate every cemetery, no matter how small, obscure or seemingly insignificant, in the west half of Madison County. To my knowledge, the only cemetery not copied is the Memory Garden and because it is so new I've chosen to leave it for the next generation.
A concentrated effort has been made to include every tombstone of burials prior to January 1, 1970. There are a few 1970 burials included but they are by no means a complete record.
It would be foolish to assume this work to be a complete record of every person buried in this part of the county from the time of the first pioneers. In the nearly three years it has taken to complete this work I've seen many tombstones destroyed by animals, elements and people. If this could happen in just three years I hate to think of the number that has been destroyed in the last hundred.
At the time of the pioneer settlement of our county it was impossible to observe many of the amenities of more settled regions. Because of this I can not help but feel only a very small percentage of our pioneers had tombstones. Many of the early graves are marked with unlettered fieldstone or slate markers of which the inscriptions have weathered away long ago. I have no way of knowing whose graves they mark, therefore, many names will be missing from this book.
An attempt has been made to correlate some of the cemetery records with the old Madison County marriage records and the 1850 Census. In some instances correlation has been made with the first land acquisitions of 1809 and the 1830 Census. The 1850 Census has been used primarily as it was the first census to list the names of household members, their ages, place of birth and property evaluation.
Since this work will be primarily used as a genealogical source book and in order to cut down the size of the book without destroying its information content, the advisability of listing the Negro cemeteries in a separate work seemed prudent.
In the older inscriptions the term "consort" is often found. It generally referred to a woman who preceded her husband in death, however, in some instances it is applied to a man who left a widow.
In order to assist the reader in locating the cemeteries listed in this work the legal descriptions have been given rather than directions on how to get to each one. The legal description will mean as much in a hundred years as it does now while the roads and their names may change and the land owners will most assuredly change.
For instance, Sec. 7-2S-2W would mean Section 7, Township 2 South and Range 2 West. All Alabama townships are "South". If a township is "West" you will know automatically it refers to land lying west of Meridian Street as that is the dividing line between the east and west ranges. All - (212)