Where the listings come from
The directory currently holds 181,906 cemeteries. Each one starts from one of two public sources:
- USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The federal gazetteer records the official name, coordinates and county of cemeteries across the country, including tens of thousands of small family and rural burial grounds. GNIS data is in the public domain.
- OpenStreetMap. Volunteer mappers add addresses, websites, phone numbers, religious affiliation, founding dates and heritage listings. OpenStreetMap data is © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database License.
Where a cemetery appears in both, we match them by the GNIS feature ID that many OpenStreetMap objects carry, or by an identical normalized name within a few hundred meters. The federal record supplies the location; OpenStreetMap supplies the details.
How we classify cemeteries
We assign a type, religious affiliation or service only when the source says so. A cemetery is listed as Catholic when its record carries a Catholic denomination or its official name says “Catholic”; we never infer it from a saint's name. A cemetery counts as historic when it has a heritage designation, a historic tag, or a recorded establishment year before 1900. When we don't know, the page says “Not available”. See all cemetery types for the rule behind each category.
Cities and counties
Counties come from the federal record or from Census county boundaries. Many rural cemeteries have no mailing address, so we list them under the nearest populated place and say so on the page. The map pin always shows the recorded location.
Duplicates
The same cemetery can be recorded more than once, as “St. Mary's Cemetery” in one source and “Saint Mary Cemetery” in another. We merge records automatically only when they are certainly the same place. Uncertain matches go to a review queue and stay separate until a person checks them.
Corrections and verification
Every listing has a correction form. Cemetery staff, families and researchers can suggest changes, and we review each one before publishing. A listing shows “Verified” only after its details have been confirmed. Always confirm hours, burial availability and prices directly with the cemetery.
What we do not publish
- Ratings or reviews we cannot attribute to a real visitor.
- Descriptions or histories that are not supported by a source.
- Records of individual burials, until we have a reliable source for them.