Old Graveyard

by dessipants

I found an old graveyard behind my house. The graves are marked with rocks and stones, which have years carved into them dating from the 1600-1700s. I live in Western North Carolina, and I am trying to figure out who these graves belong to without digging anything up. I am planning to try to find the history of my property, but I have a feeling it will be difficult to trace that far back.

Any help is appreciated.

caffarelli

Have you called (or visited, or emailed) the local public library and asked the reference librarian? I worked at a community archives (my very first archives job!) and we essentially had an index of all the graveyards in town. Helping people research the history of their property is something local history archives and local libraries do a lot though! There's a few different methods, usually in my area we started with plat books but it was a farming area in the Midwest, I'm not sure about your area. But your local public library is a good place to start, they'll point you at the right local resources.