Welcome to Debbie's Genealogical Library!   

Debbie’s Genealogy Library has been online since 1996.  It started out as an off shoot of my own love of genealogy and the realization that I too could collect and contribute information to the genealogical community.  I started out by walking a couple of cemeteries near my home, researching the cemetery, and creating lists of the marked burials.  To date, I have created lists for over 100 cemeteries. 

Over the past decade or so, I have received a great deal of e-mail from all across the United States as well as from several foreign countries.  Many of these start out with ‘thank you for the great website’ or ‘I never thought I would find so and so.’  Others have written to offer additional information about someone or to add someone to a particular cemetery list as a family member submission.

The online versions of my cemetery lists are scaled down versions of the books I created.   The main difference between the online version and the paper version is the paper version includes row numbers and a general map of the cemetery.  The online versions do not include the row numbers or the corresponding map.  I should also mention that the maps and row numbers were created by me as a general guide to assist in the location of burials.  If you are interested in paper versions for your library they are available through Debbie's Bookstore.

For those who prefer to review paper versions of my cemetery transcription lists, I have donated copies to several libraries.  Of these, the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota has the most complete set.  Additionally, the Dakota County Cemetery books are available through the Dakota County Library system.  The Carver County Cemetery books are available at both the Carver County Historical Society in Waconia, Minnesota and through the Carver County Library system.  The Kandiyohi County Historical Society in Willmar, Minnesota has a copy of Kandiyohi County listing.  

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Family Member Submissions and Links to other Sites

If you are confident that a relative is buried in one of the cemeteries that I have transcribed, but they are not listed, or you have additional information about the decedent I will add it to the cemetery transcription list with a notation that the information was received from a family member.   Information that would be best suited for family member submission would be: date of birth, place of birth, parents names (only if they are deceased or you are the parent), date of death, place of death, maiden name, spouse name, date and place of marriage, military rank / title, etc.   The family member submissions would be listed similar to the following:

Bertha Borka (This was my original listing)

**Bertha Borka 22 January 1862 - 13 May 1952** This persons information was added with information that I received from a family member.   This information was not transcribed from the burial monument. (I left the original listing and added this additional information to the file)

or

**Josephine Dominick, daughter of Frank Wasnick, wife of Henry Dominick, born in Scott County, 5 March 1858 – 19 October 1949**  This persons information was added  with information that I received from a family member.  This information was not transcribed from the burial monument.

or

**John Chastek, served during Civil War – Private, Co. E., Hatch’s Independent Battalion Cavalry, married Anna Pribec 19 March 1868 at Racine, Wisconsin, 1837 – 1924**  This persons information was added  with information that I received from a family member.  This information was not transcribed from the burial monument.

If you have a related cemetery link or your own personal genealogical web page with ancestral information that pertains to a particular cemetery or to a number of decedents in a particular cemetery, please let me know and I will add a link to that page from my page.   These links are listed similar to the following: 

** For further information about the Highland Cemetery there is another website located at:  members.aol.com/baggerjane/highland/index.htm

**For information about the Hyland family there is a web site located at: www.nwinfo.net/~lordgarth/hylands.html

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Information about Cemetery Lists

Unless otherwise stated, the cemetery information that I list is from the burial monuments only.   I do not have access to the official cemetery records.   My lists are not intended to be official records nor any type of substitute for any sort of official record.  

When I compile burial monument information, I place the surnames in alphabetical order, rather than an order based upon where the person was buried.  I try to spell information written in a native language or printed in script style, like names, towns, and places, the same.   I typically transcribe 'born' and 'died' into English.

Dates are listed in a date month year style.   Burial monuments dates are usually listed month day year.  

World War II is usually listed as World War 2.

When the monuments are difficult to read, I list the most likely transcription followed a (?). 

Some cemeteries have sections or plots with a central family monument with only a surname.  These family monuments are then surrounded by individual burial monuments that only list the given names with birth and death information, but no surname.  These people are usually related, but may or may not share the same surname.   I arbitrarily list these lone given names with the surname listed on the central surname monument followed by (?). 

If the ? is listed without parenthesis it generally means a letter(s) or number(s) was/were present on the burial monument, but I was not able to get a good reading.

In some cases I list people who may be living.  These are usually cases where the spouse is deceased and the living spouse’s year of birth is at least 70 years ago.  I list the living spouse in order for researchers to make better genealogical connections.  These are generally listed with their name and incomplete dates, like: 1917-____ or 22 May 1917-____.   There are also a couple of instances where incomplete dates were listed because this is how I found the burial monument.  This is typically due to the date of death never being added to the burial monument or the person moved away or got remarried and whoever handled their estate did not do anything with the pre-assigned grave.

There may be two burial monuments for those who served in the military, one personal and one pertaining to their military service.  I generally list the information separately for each burial monument.  I have also noticed that a few of the military burial monuments have only one date listed.  These dates typically coinciding with a war time period.  I suspect these are actually the person’s date of death, but did not confirm this.

If the transcription is followed by 'vet *' or 'veteran *' the grave had a bronze looking veterans star placed near the grave.  These bronze looking veterans’ stars are placed atop a three foot stake. 

If the transcription lists 'G.A.R.' or 'GAR' this refers to a similarly styled bronze looking veterans star atop a three foot stake.  Some of the burial monuments also list 'G.A.R.' or 'GAR'.  I understand 'G.A.R.' or 'GAR' to be an abbreviation for the Union Civil War veteran’s organization Grand Army of the Republic.

My cemetery burial monument transcriptions are solely based upon my readings of the burial monument.  I apologize in advance if I have transcribed something incorrectly.  My intention has been to provide an accurate list for genealogical research. 

I claim and reserve any and all rights to the works that I have compiled and created.   These pages may be viewed much like a library book, but I do not approve of any type of reproduction in any format.   Persons or organizations desiring to use the information contained within in my web pages MUST obtain my written consent.

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