US Black Heritage African-American Cemeteries Team

Profile managers: Emma MacBeath [send private message], US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message], and Denise Jarrett [send private message]

The US Black Heritage Cemetery Team is part of the WikiTree US Black Heritage Project

Mission

The primary mission of the US Black Heritage Cemetery Team is to document the final resting place of African Americans by placing cemetery categories on their profiles.

We aim to:

1. Create Profiles for those interred in African-American Cemeteries.
2. Build Cemetery Categories for African-American Cemeteries.
3. Create Free Space Pages for affiliated churches and organizations

Joining the Team

It's easy to become a member:

• Answer this post and tell us you want to be a member of the Black Heritage Cemeteries Team and add Black_Heritage to your followed tags to stay up to date with project posts.

Team Members

• Carolyn (Atkinson) Martin
• Bartholemew, Shirleen
• Katie (Cooper) Bryant
• Pam Fraley
• Ambar Díaz
• Natalie (Durbin) Trott
• Gene Ellison
• Kate (Gardner) Schmidt
• Mike Greer
• Denise Jarett USBH Co-Project Leader
• Emma MacBeath USBH Project Leader
• Tara Wildes

Accomplishments

This is a monthly progress report of the African-American cemetery categories that have been created, which includes the number of profiles created, and the number of memorials that have been added to the cemetery as recorded in Find A Grave.

Progress report as of Dec 31, 2023. See Project Stats table for details.

Monthly Progress

Progress of all states

Highlights

1. Cemeteries that are currently 100% complete: 146 of 2,287 (24.21%).
2. There are 16 cemetery categories that have been created, but have no profiles linked.
3. There are 7 counties created, that have no categories or profiles. See Needs Profiles List for details.

State Team Cemetery Stats

Progress of the state teams as of Dec 31, 2023

Project Stats table for details.

African-American Cemetery Audits

The team is engaged in cleanup to assure that all African-American cemeteries have the following attributes:

1. A correctly created category
2. At least one profile of a memorial has been linked to the cemetery category
3. Cemetery (optional) or affiliated church or organization space page has been created
4. At least one other source has been added to the profile (i.e. Census record, birth/death record)

Questions/Answers

Here is a list of commonly asked questions and the answers provided.

How do I Create a New African-American Cemetery Category?

This official guide, Cemetery Categorization, is designed to help you create a new cemetery category in a few simple steps, however there is a slight difference for African-American cemeteries.

A separate category path has been created to distinguish African-American cemeteries from non-African-American cemeteries. All African-American profiles and African-American cemetery free space pages (optional) should be categorized as part of the overall category structure for the African-American Cemeteries. The overall category structure looks like this:

• US Black Heritage Project
  • African-American Family History
    • African-American Cemeteries
      • Alabama, African-American Cemeteries State, African-American Cemeteries
        • Bullock County, Alabama, African-American Cemeteries County/Parish,African-American Cemeteries
          • County Line Zion AME Church Cemetery, Bullock County, Alabama Cemetery Name, Location, African-American Cemeteries

See Instructions for New African-American Cemeteries for detailed instructions.

Feel free to post a comment below if you have any specific questions.

If you are not comfortable with creating new African-American cemetery categories right now, you can also request a cemetery category to be created for you until you get the hang of it by including this category Category:US|Black Heritage Project, Needs Cemetery Category Created on the associated profile. Our only request is that you do not abuse the generosity of the US Black Heritage Cemetery Team who provides this service.

How do I create a category for a cemetery that no longer exists?

The purpose of the categories is to link profiles to the current gravesite (wherever the graves were moved to and exist now).

The defunct cemetery can however be included in a free-space page as a connection to the re-interment sites.

What is an African American Cemetery?

An African American Cemetery is defined as the resting place of African Heritage and Non-White Ancestors of those that were enslaved or free people of color in the United States.

The interred in those cemeteries are not limited to African American heritage, however they are related to the African American community through marriage, birth or some other means that would create familiarity.

There are many cemeteries that contain defined African American sections. If you come across a cemetery with multiple races, but have a designated African-American section, include the phrase African-American section in the title of the space page only.

Example:

Contact Us

If you or a friend would like to send us documentation or other information about an African-American Cemetery Just email: wikitrees-usbh-exchange at googlegroups.com. - replace the at with @