Cemetery Survey Package

• Microsoft Word form. Right-click here and save the file to the folder you prefer. Open the file using Microsoft Word and save it with a new file name before entering any information. When you have entered the information, save the file and email it to the Society.
• Printable form. You have two choices for printing a form that you can fill out by hand.  One is to right-click here and save the file to the folder you prefer.  Open the file with Microsoft Word then print it.  The other is to click here for an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the printable form.  After filling out the form by hand, send it to the Society.
• Microsoft Excel spreadsheet: If you have a large number of gravestones to submit, you can enter the data into an Excel spreadsheet for submission.  Right-click here and save the file to the folder you prefer. Open the file using Microsoft Excel and save it with a new file name before entering any information.  When you have entered the information, save the file and e-mail to the Society.  The form will be processed to load directly into the database; no re-keying is done.  The only tricky part in entering data into the spreadsheet is the Transcription field. You must indicate line breaks using the vertical bar ( | ) character. For example, the following on a grave stone:

  MARY JONES
  wife of
  JOHN SMITH
  died
  May 2, 1845

  …would be entered as the following: “MARY JONES|wife of|JOHN SMITH|died|May 2, 1845”, without the double quotes.

Details on the Content of the Cemetery Database

The Hartland cemetery database has a wide range of information designed for various different interests.  Some information will be of interest to all who visit the cemetery web site or who look through the printed cemetery books at the Society museum.  Other information may be of interest to only some.

The information below goes through all of the fields in the database, in the order presented on the gravestone forms above, which are very similar in layout to the information presented on the web site or in the cemetery books.

• RECNO: The record number is a unique identification number assigned to each person who is buried, or who is represented on a stone in a Hartland cemetery. The number has no other meaning other than to be a key to the person’s database record.  If a gravestone represents more than one person, each person is given a unique record number.  In such cases, the picture of the gravestone and the transcription may be the same, but other information will be unique for each person.
• Prefix: This includes professional designations, such as Dr. or Professor, military ranks, or other words commonly included at the front of a person’s name. Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., etc. are generally not included in this field. However, if one of these titles is included on the gravestone, it must be reflected in the transcription filed, which must always match exactly what is on the stone.
• Last name: The surname (family name) of the person at the time of death is put into this field, regardless of what is written on the gravestone. Generally, but not always, for a married woman, this is her husband’s surname.
• First name: Use the person’s legal first (given) name, even if the person went by a different name during his or her lifetime. Use the comment field to explain any unconventional use of names.
• Middle Name or Middle Initial: Include the full middle name or middle initial, if known.
• Suffix: Words appended to a person’s name. Common suffixes are Jr. or professional designations, such as Esq.
• Maiden Name: For a married woman, her surname (family name) at birth.
• Sex: Male, Female, or Transgender.  Although sex is usually obvious based upon the first name, there are exceptions.  If you don’t know, leave it blank.
• Relationship: Include the relationship that would be most useful to someone searching for a gravestone.  For married people, this is usually a reference to their spouse.  For unmarried people, this is usually a reference to their parents. Use the abbreviations “w/o” (wife of), “h/o” (husband of), “s/o” (son of), or “d/o” (daughter of) when appropriate.  Do not use “relict” (widow of) or “consort of”, even if written on the stone, but certainly use these terms in the transcript and in any comments you enter.
• Birth Date: Include the birth date if on the stone or if known from other sources. If the date doesn’t match what is on the stone, explain in the comments field.
• Death Date: Include the death date if on the stone or if known from other sources. If the date doesn’t match what is on the stone, explain in the comments field.
• Died in xx[st | nd | rd | th] year of life or Aged: (years, months, days) Use whichever form is on the stone. If neither is on the stone and you know the information, use the latter, more-detailed format.
• Place of Death: Include if on the stone or known from other sources. Use the format: town, state. The state should be the standardized United States Postal Service (USPS) 2-character, upper case state form. Here is a complete reference for the entire United States, territories, and possessions.  For international locations, use the 3-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
  country designator.
• Number of Graves: If this is a gravestone for one person, enter “1”.  If more than one person is represented by this stone, include the proper number in this field.  For double stones or multi-sided stones, that is, stones that are actually one piece, treat them as one stone representing each of those people.
• Have Picture?: Indicate whether or not you have a picture of this gravestone.  If you have more than one picture that should be presented, indicate the number of additional pictures below the yes/no boxes.  So, if you have two pictures, check the “Yes” box and enter “1” for extra. The primary picture should show the full front of the stone.  See the photo guidelines for tips and suggestions for providing the best pictures for our purposes.
• Cemetery: Enter the cemetery name.  If the gravestone is not in one of the Hartland cemeteries already listed at the web site, include the name in this field, and discuss the matter with the Historical Society’s cemetery coordinator before the information is loaded into the database.
• Section and/or Stone Number: Consult the detailed cemetery pages for information about how stones within the cemetery are numbered.  Smaller cemeteries might not be divided into sections and their stones are just numbered either by row or consecutively.  Larger cemeteries are often divided into sections.  Enter the appropriate section and stone number that conforms to the standard for that cemetery.
• Genealogy ID: (2018-03-07: This field has been removed.) Leave blank. This field is for a planned future function.
• Veteran: If the person was a veteran, check “Yes” and indicate the war in which he or she served. Otherwise, check “No”.
• Stone Composition: Indicate the material of which the gravestone is constructed.
• Stone Shape: Indicate the shape of the stone or marker.  Common shapes include: square top, fancy top, rounded top, pointed top, crude fieldstone, tomb, statue, cross marker, Star of David, box tomb, table tomb.  If none of those are appropriate, describe the stone’s shape.
• Stone Condition: Indicate the stone’s overall condition: Good, Fair, or Poor.
• Stone State: Indicate whether the stone is up, down, repaired, or broken. If the stone matches more than one of these states, use the worst of the conditions. If none of these conditions applies, select “other” and write in its state.
• Legibility: Indicate the legibility of the stone: Good, Fair, or Poor.
• Stone Size: Indicate the stone’s height and width, rounded to the nearest whole inch.
• Footstone: Indicate whether or not there is a footstone for this grave.
• Stone Still Exists: Check “Yes” if the headstone still exists, even if it cannot be read, is in poor condition, or is down or broken.  If the headstone was known to have existed, but is no longer there, indicate the year when it was last seen.  If a stone was included in a prior cemetery survey, but is no longer there, “No” should be checked and the year of the prior survey included.
• Transcriber: Your name and optionally your e-mail address can be included in the records for this stone.
• Stone Carving: Indicate any significant carvings that appear on the headstone.  Common carvings include: skull, skull with wings, winged creature (other), angel or cherub, willow branch, urn, flower, hand pointing up, coat of arms, rising sun, brand (western), portrait, lamb, and acanthus.
• Stone Carver / How Carver Identified: If you know the name of the stone carver, including his or her name as well as the source of the name.  Common sources for names of stone carvers include: signed, from probate record, from the carver’s account book, from the cemetery log, or it could be just a guess.
• Transcript: The transcript is an exact copy of what is written on the headstone, including line breaks, capitalization, and punctuation. In most cases, the words on a gravestone are centered. Unless you indicate otherwise, it is assumed that the wording on this stone is centered.  Include all of the words, including the verses, which may be in much smaller lettering than the first part of the stone and is often unreadable from photographs.  Include only what is on the stone; put any explanations in the comments field.  The exceptions are when a section is unreadable.  Indicate that words or letters are unreadable with an underscore or with the word “unreadable” in parenthesis.  For example: “Now is the (unreadable) to be with the Lord”. Also, if a stone has been buried, obscuring some words that are known to exist, include “buried” in parenthesis in the transcript.  Break the lines exactly as they appear on the stone. When entering with the online form (authorized persons only), indicate a line break with a vertical bar (|) and no space before or after the text. Indicate a blank line, for example between two people on a single marker, with two vertical bars with a space between (| |).  There is no practical size limit to this field; include as much of the wording on the stone as you can.
• Comments / Genealogy: Include any appropriate comments in this field.  Disagreements between the dates on the stone and other sources of information should be noted here.  If you can, provide any additional information you have about the person’s ancestry.  Include sources of the information, whenever possible.
• Other Information: If you have information that doesn’t fit into any of these fields, contact the Society cemetery coordinator to discuss the situation.