Historic Cemeteries Program
The Department of State’s newest office offers another avenue to help preserve the past for future generations. Created in response to recommendations from the Task Force for Abandoned African American Cemeteries, the Historic Cemeteries Program serves as a resource for all historic cemeteries within the state.
Cemeteries are among the most under-recorded historic resources in Florida, so one of the main goals of the program is to get more cemeteries entered into the Florida Master Site File, Florida's official inventory of historical, cultural resources.
Currently, more than 260,000 cultural and historical sites are recorded in the Florida Master Site File, but only about 2,050 are cemeteries.
“To be considered historic, a cemetery must have interments that are a minimum of 50 years old. They may be marked or unmarked, and are generally considered to be an individual’s eternal resting place,” said Patrisha Meyers-Gidusko, Historic Cemeteries Program Supervisor. “One thing to consider is that although a cemetery may be unmarked now, it may not have always been unmarked. Florida doesn’t have stone quarries suitable for monuments, so until there was easy transportation for materials like marble or granite, graves might have been signified by less permanent materials such as wooden markers, which deteriorate over time.”
Conservative estimates indicate that there are 5,000 to 7,000 historic cemeteries in the state that are over 50 years of age.
The pictured map shows population density of each Florida county vs. the number of cemeteries that are recorded in the Master Site File. You can see that, for example, Dade County has a high population density but very few recorded cemeteries. Whereas much less populous Jefferson County, the site of a 2019 cemetery survey, has many more recorded cemetery sites.
One goal of getting these cemeteries recorded is to avoid unintended consequences from development projects. “The last thing we want to have happen is to find an unmarked cemetery with a backhoe as construction begins,” said Meyers-Gidusko. “That’s why it’s so important to have the sites recorded with the Florida Master Site File, so that we know about them before development starts. The first level of protection is getting a site recorded.”
The Historic Cemeteries Program is collecting data for unrecorded historic cemeteries from a variety of sources, going county by county locating organizations such as historical or genealogical societies, or anyone who might be tracking the history of a place.
If you know of a possible cemetery location, you can report it via the Florida Historic Cemetery Inventory. Staff members will check the Master Site File to see if the cemetery is already recorded. Then, depending on location, either Historic Cemeteries Program staff or staff from their partner organization FPAN (Florida Public Archaeology Network), will visit the site and try to confirm the existence of a cemetery.
Visit the program’s website for additional information, including guidelines on the best way to care for a historic cemetery as well as information on grants that might be available to assist in preservation efforts.