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mcc-jrr_893-004

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Lynch Cemetery, 89-3 Summary Report, page 4

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The basis for the name of the cemetery is unknown, but generally names of cemeteries that are not associated with a church or community name reflect ownership of the land at some point in time when the burial ground began to be used for that purpose. Accordingly, old land records were examined to see when the Lynch family came into ownership of the land. After that time, then many of the burials would be linked to the Lynch family, either directly or by marriage, or sometimes by association as neighbors. While no specific names of the deceased can be definitely tied to the cemetery through that method of research, it provides indications of likely burials, since people in rural areas typically were buried on their own land or that of a close neighbor (especially if they rented a farm and had no land of their own). Otherwise, burials would be in community cemeteries (which were rare) or church cemeteries. This cemetery appears to be an old, private cemetery. It has the “feel” of an old slave cemetery, but that is simply conjecture built upon the lack of tombstones and from some knowledge of the history of the land ownership. That history begins with study of the initial land purchase for Section 22 of T5-R1W from the government, as shown below in Margaret Matthews Cowart's book OLD LAND RECORDS OF MADISON COUNTY, ALABAMA: 4 - (3119)    

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