Editorial

Cemetery records

As interest in family roots continues to grow, the Cape Girardeau County Archives Center in Jackson becomes a more valuable resource. The center houses county records. Death records in the archives date back about a century. Earlier information is provided by headstones on graves in the county's more than 200 cemeteries.

Cemeteries in the county range from old family plots with just a few graves and often missing headstones to large, well-maintained commercial cemeteries. Archives employees and volunteers are trying to fill in the gaps by recording headstone inscriptions from every cemetery.

This daunting project began last spring and is expected to take quite some time to complete. The information will be made available through books or DVDs.

Making information from cemeteries easily available to history buffs and genealogists is an important move toward accurate and complete records of those who have died since the very first European settlers arrived.

Hats off to the county archives center and its hard-working staff for moving this project along. It will be an invaluable treasure trove when completed.

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