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Cemeteries of Madison County, Vol. II, page iv
INTRODUCTION
If half the graves in Madison County have tombstones it would surprise me so if you are certain your ancestors are buried here but there is no mention of them in this book they may not have stones marking their graves. In the nine years I have worked on this book I have made a concentrated effort to locate every graveyard (abandoned, destroyed, or otherwise) in this part of Madison County, but I'm sure, if the law of averages prevails, others will turn up after this book has gone to press.
For those who died prior to the Civil War only the more affluent families erected tombstones and not even some of those. This was mainly due to lack of craftsmen living in this area. The stones had to be hauled from Tennessee, usually by ox-cart, and the early settlers had other uses for their money such as food and shelter. During the Great Depression the percentage of marked graves went down, however, when times got better many families did later mark the graves of their loved ones.
You will find some cemeteries in alphabetical order. These were copied years ago (but proof read recently). Later I quit putting them in alphabetical order and typed them as they were copied.
In order to help tie families together genealogically I have indexed women by their married name and by their maiden name if it was on the tombstone. When indexing by the maiden name the married name is always in brackets. For instance, Annie Keel Birchfield will be listed in the index twice; under the B's she will be listed by her married name:
Birchfield, Annie Keel, 293
She will also be listed in the K's by her maiden name:
Keel, Annie [Birchfield], 293
If you find some women also indexed by their middle name it is because I can not tell the difference between a maiden and middle name in some instances. There is no way for me to know which it is and since it is better to over index than under index I have included them.
You will find some cemeteries "continued" to the back of the book. These were cemeteries I canvassed several years ago. When I went back to check my work I found several additional burials. Rather than retype the entire book (!!) or rearrange page numbers (!!) I added them at the end.
In order to assist the reader in locating the cemeteries listed in this work on any good map the legal description of the cemetery is given. The legal descriptions will mean as much in a hundred years as they do today while the roads and their names may change and the land owners will most assuradely change. All cemeteries in this book are in the east ranges, i.e., east of the meridian. If a range is "east" you will know automatically it refers to land lying east of Meridian Street as, generally speaking, that is the dividing line between the east and west ranges.
For example, if a location is listed as SE NW NE of Sec. 7, you should first locate the NE quarter of the entire section; then locate the NW quarter of the NE quarter and last you go to the center of the SE quarter of the NW quarter. In reading a location description always read it backwards. When a description shows the S/2 or the NE/4, for instance, this means the south half or the northeast quarter of the section.
If any of my readers knows of a cemetery in the northeast portion of Madison County, still in existence or not, that is not included in this book I would appreciate knowing about it. Please feel free to call me at 539-9060. If you have inscriptions from tombstones that are now gone I would also appreciate having that information. - (601)