Old Cemeteries of Boston

From the introduction to the book:

"The present book represents the first complete collection of all available records. While the compilers, Robert J. Dunkle and Ann S. Lainhart, were working on the enumeration of deaths in the Town of Boston from 1700 through 1799, (Deaths in Boston, 1700 to 1799, compiled by Robert J. Dunkle and Ann S. Lainhart (Boston: NEHGS, 1999) they were given the opportunity to access the card file prepared by Henry A. May, now at the Boston Parks Commission, Cemetery Archives Section. In the process of working with the many published cemetery inscriptions, it had become apparent that there was no central source where all of the extant records for all of the cemeteries had been compiled and compared. Many of the earlier sources contain epitaphs not found in later editions. Through the card file of the Cemetery Archives Section, many records not included in any printed material were located. It was decided, therefore, to publish all of the epitaphs, regardless of date and source.

The compilers first transcribed entries from Elisha G. Copeland's manuscript "Collection of Deaths of Inhabitants of Boston compiled from Newspapers, Magazines, Genealogical Registers, and Other Various Sources" (1858), at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. They then compared the entries from Copeland to the following published sources: Thomas Bridgman, The Pilgrims of Boston and Their Descendants...Inscriptions from the Monuments in the Granary Burial Ground, Tremont Street (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1856); Gravestone Inscriptions and Records of Tomb Burials in Central Burying Ground Boston Common and Inscriptions in the South Burying Ground Boston (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1917); Gravestone Inscriptions and Records of Tomb Burials in the Central Burials in the Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Mass. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1918); and William Whitmore, The Graveyards of Boston, First Volume. Copp's Hill Epitaphs (Albany: Joel Munsell, 1878). Whitmore's book contains the 1863 inventory by Thomas B. Wyman, Jr., who copied inscriptions and compared them to Thomas Bridgman's much less thorough compilation of 1856."

View a map of the Central (Common) Burial Ground
View a map of the Copp's Hill Burial Ground
View a map of the Granary Burial Ground
View a map of the Hawes Burial Ground
View a map of the King's Chapel Burial Ground

This database contains 15,097 records. The original page images may be viewed from the search results page.

This volume is also available in our Boston research library, call number: F73.61 D86 2000.

To locate additional genealogy and local history resources, search our library catalog.