Tombstone Tuesday– Finding Sacramento Area Cemeteries

[Editor's Note: Today's post was written by Richard Hanson. Photo courtesy of the Find A Grave website.]

At workshop meetings of the Root Cellar Sacramento German Genealogical Society, the opening question/answer/discussion session can lead in any direction. At the March 20 meeting, it led to the now gone New Helvetia Cemetery with the question being where did all the residents go. Several attendees provided helpful tips and information. But if you cannot attend the workshop meeting, is there somewhere else to obtain information on local cemeteries and find out what became of the missing ones?

Historical marker for the New Helvetia Cemetery. Photo is from Find A Grave.
(http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=1982256)

One source is the website of the California GenWeb Project. Specifically, its Sacramento County website. To see a list of local cemetery resources posted there, go to:

http://www.cagenweb.com/sacramento/cemetery_dist.htm

Almost all the listed entities have websites and some include online searchable databases. It also includes a summary listing of over 150 cemeteries. And there is a page dedicated to the New Helvetica cemetery. As of the date the blog was authored (March 21), the URL on that website for the Sacramento County Cemetery Advisory Commission is wrong. Correct one is:

http://www.coroner.saccounty.net/sccac

I emailed the correction to the webmaster for the Sacramento CAGenWeb website and she replied back the same day saying Sacramento County has changed the URL for that page a number of times over the past year or two. So if you bookmark this county coroner page, be prepared to find it again.

She also wants to make this page the go-to place for finding local cemetery information. So if you have any corrections, updates, missing information or lists of graves, please send them to her. The website contains a contact form.

Oh yes. The answer to the question as to where the residents of New Helvetica where relocated follows.

   4,691 sent to East Lawn Memorial Park and buried in a common grave
   410 to City Cemetery
   84 to East Lawn and buried in private plots by relatives
   32 to Odd Fellows Cemetery
   6 to Sacramento Memorial Lawn
   3 to St. Joseph’s
   3 to Sylvan Cemetery
   3 to Elk Grove Cemetery
   2 to St. Mary’s
   1 to Masonic Cemetery
Source: http://www.cagenweb.com/sacramento/pdf/NewHelvetiaBrochure.pdf

Cemetery information provided courtesy of

Sacramento County part of the CA GenWeb Project

(www.cagenweb.com/sacramento)

The Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society also provides information local cemeteries:
• Root Cellar's online store sells volunteer-created publications, some of
  which contain cemetery records.
• Root Cellar maintains a library at the State Archives Library in downtown
  Sacramento.
• Root Cellar provides volunteer research service to search accessible local
  records including cemetery listings.