In their excellent article in the May 2010 issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Lisa Sattenspiel and Melissa Stoops outline a demographic study utilizing data gathered from cemetery headstones in the city of Columbia, Missouri. They summarize quite well the potential utility cemetery data have for studies in historical demography, namely that mortality rates gleaned from headstones can fill in the gaps in the historical record. As the authors note, death registrations were not required for rural areas as late as 1910, leaving some rather sizable gaps in the vital statistics of these areas. Cemetery data thus provide a supplement to the historical record of mortality statistics, and can be used to tease out significant events in local urban ecology (such as disease outbreaks, seasonality of epidemics, or improvements in sanitation).
This article also points to a sizable gap in historical demographic studies in that the majority of such work is centered on urban populations. Clearly there is a need to expand the scope of such research into rural communities. The challenge for cemetery studies within such a rural context is that internments are often far less centralized as in larger population centers. For example, in many early Euroamerican rural settlements internments often centered on small, family plots now isolated from the general view shed of the modern community. This would seem to entail a fair amount of field research for the aspiring rural demographer interested in historical mortality rates, although the need for such work is no less apparent.
This article also points to a sizable gap in historical demographic studies in that the majority of such work is centered on urban populations. Clearly there is a need to expand the scope of such research into rural communities. The challenge for cemetery studies within such a rural context is that internments are often far less centralized as in larger population centers. For example, in many early Euroamerican rural settlements internments often centered on small, family plots now isolated from the general view shed of the modern community. This would seem to entail a fair amount of field research for the aspiring rural demographer interested in historical mortality rates, although the need for such work is no less apparent.
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>"This would seem to entail a fair amount of field research for the aspiring rural demographer interested in historical mortality rates, although the need for such work is no less apparent."
ReplyDeleteSome of this field work has already been tackled! http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=csb lets you browse cemeteries by county within the US, will map their locations, and often has a list of "interments" - whatever info the surviving headstones have. Granted, the lists can be sometimes spotty, because they rely on community-minded descendants and enthusiasts... but it could still be a great resources for someone starting out such a study (it lists 129 cemeteries in Broome county, though some are duplicates, and at least one is a pet cemetery).