The main page of graveyards.com lists a number of "Graveyards and Mausolea" that I have explored and photographed. This number, updated automatically each night, is simply the count of database entries that I have marked as "visited"; all of these have a photograph. It includes locations of several different types, as detailed below.
The database can be accessed through the "Cemetery List" links. Most of the entries come from the US Geological Survey, which gives names of cemeteries (and other features) with state, county, latitude and longitude. I have imported their data into my own database, adding many entries that were not known to the USGS, and deleting some that are incorrect.
| Each entry in the "Graveyards.com Cemetery List" represents either a graveyard, a group of closely related graveyards, or a mausoleum that exists outside of a graveyard. Mausolea located inside a graveyard do not receive a separate entry. |
These are the types of locations that receive entries of their own:
Miscellaneous locations that may contain human or animal remains that I do not include in my listings: private collections of ashes; places where ashes have been scattered; temporary and illicit burial sites of murder victims; other temporary sites such as morgues and funeral parlors; reliquaries and other places with minute amounts of remains.
Most of the Jewish "cemeteries" in the Chicago area are actually groupings of several small cemeteries. Jewish Graceland, for example, consists of four cemeteries, with no clear dividing lines between them - but the entire complex is less than one city block in size. At the other extreme, Waldheim Jewish Cemeteries includes three hundred small cemeteries, most of them with their own entrances. The exact boundaries are often unclear to anyone not intimately familiar with the location.
To keep the database manageable, I have elected to ignore the small Jewish cemeteries that exist within a larger grouping, and instead treat the entire group as a single unit - thus you will find only one entry for Jewish Graceland, not four. However, where the USGS has already made separate entries, I have preserved these - thus you will find four entries for the cemetery complex that includes Mount Mayriv. Waldheim, the largest Jewish cemetery grouping, also has four entries rather than three hundred.
Graveyards may directly adjoin, without a clear border between, with or without a separate entrance. These are given separate entries, if they have a sign, entrance, or distinct identity. Consider the nonsectarian Randhill Park Cemetery; it is enclosed within the same walls as Shalom Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery; inside there is no fence between them, but they have separate entrances, hours, and criteria for burial. Similarly, Alton City Cemetery and Alton National Cemetery are within the same enclosure but have separate entrances, and are treated as two cemeteries.
Another case is that of graveyards that are wholly enclosed by another graveyard - surrounded on all sides, without an entrance of their own. These are given a separate entry if there is some visual indicator - such as a sign or monument - that it is, or was, a separate graveyard. One example is Crown Hill National Cemetery, a military cemetery that is entirely contained within Indianapolis' Crown Hill Cemetery - at the center of Crown Hill, not at an edge. Crown Hill also contains a section where remains from two defunct cemeteries have been relocated - Green Lawn and Rhoads - each with a monument; these receive separate entries as well.
Mausolea - buildings intended to contain human remains permanently - are included in the listings only if they are not within a graveyard. Portland Memorial Mausoleum is a large community mausoleum that has no attached graveyard, and thus receives a separate entry. Rosehill Mausoleum, which is almost as large and spectacular, does not receive an entry of its own; it is considered a feature of Rosehill Cemetery.
A very small mausoleum such as that of Ira Couch will be listed if it is outside of a cemetery - in this case it is all that remains of a location that once was Chicago's City Cemetery.