DAVIDSON COUNTY CEMETERY SURVEY

                                  A COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER PROJECT

                                             Update Report March 25, 2008

 

Davidson County Cemetery Survey was initiated with 12 Colonial Dames volunteers in November 1999.  Since that date, 350 community volunteers have been involved in visiting cemeteries and recording tombstone inscriptions.  Another 205 volunteers have provided local history, family history, cemetery directions and archaeological assistance.  Fletch Coke and Bertie Shriver have served as the Volunteer Coordinators for the project.  Ken Fieth, Director of Metropolitan Government Archives, set up a database for the cemetery findings.   Nashville Town Committee of Colonial Dames (NSCDA-TN) contributed funds to engage data entry personnel to enter the tombstone inscriptions and cemetery information on the database.

 

To date, 590 cemeteries have been surveyed.  These cemeteries fall into the following categories:  family cemeteries, church graveyards, “Removed” including 44 graveyards relocated during the Percy Priest Dam construction, “Lost” cemeteries which can no longer be located and “Destroyed” cemeteries.  In the cases of “Removed, Lost and Destroyed” cemeteries, research reports have been prepared and the names of those once buried in these cemeteries given when known.  Efforts have been made to locate and visit all the cemeteries, named and unnamed, listed in the Metro Planning Commission Map & Parcel ID system.   

 

Every year “new” cemeteries are reported to the Davidson County Cemetery Survey web site via the email reply forms.  These are often reported by descendants who are sending in family history findings.   Frequently these “new” cemeteries are reported by neighbors nearby to current residential or commercial development..

 

Using the Metro Planning Commission web site, the locations of all surveyed cemeteries have been pinpointed with their Parcel Map and ID identification.  These location maps are on file at the Metro Archives.  Handwritten tombstone survey forms, maps, inscription forms and files for surveyed cemeteries are also on file at the Metro Archives.  All cemetery locations have been turned over to the Metro Planning Commission so that these cemeteries will be known, recorded on Metro survey maps and protected in the future.

 

Since 2000, Kimberly Batts has served as the volunteer web master for the Davidson County Cemetery Survey project.  Visitors to the web site are invited to submit questions or to send information about cemeteries through the email reply form.  As of  March 25, 2008, there have been 30,180 visitors to the web site.

 

Update Report.  Fletch Coke