The subtitle of this book is “Unearthing the hidden history of America’s cemeteries”, and that is basically what Melville accomplishes with this book. Each of the seventeen chapters discusses at least one cemetery, and sometimes more when he compares and contrasts other, sometimes nearby, cemeteries. For example, the (previously) whites only cemeteries, compared with the land utilized for slaves or freed peoples. One cemetery may be carefully cared for, while the other may be neglected, at best. He also describes how cemeteries, and burial customs, have evolved over time, and how they are still changing today.
While he is realistic about the inequalities of some of America’s past funerary practices, he also has some good things to say about some aspects of cemeteries. For example, some are almost park like, and were intended to be so. Some headstones and mausoleums are works of art. A few of the more impressive cemeteries have inspired poets and conservationists. The flip side, of course, is that many cemeteries are businesses, and businesses want to be profitable.
Melville is not above name dropping, and in fact, some cemeteries have utilized this tactic themselves. For some reason, if someone famous is buried in a particular cemetery, many other people seem to want to be buried there as well. It’s almost like becoming neighbors with them. But some of the places Melville mentions are famous in their own right, even if no one still knows the names of everyone interred there. His final chapters discuss current and potential future “trends” for cemeteries.
If this was your family, how would you research them? Many of the cemeteries Melville profiles contain not just well known individuals, but average Americans as well. While most of our ancestors are probably not buried in “notable” cemeteries, it is never a bad thing to learn the history about where they are interred. The most well know websites for finding burials are Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/, and Billion Graves, https://www.billiongraves.com/. However, many larger cemeteries have their own websites, and information for veterans cemeteries can be accessed at the National Cemetery Administration, https://www.cem.va.gov/.
I just had the opportunity to visit a cemetery where one of the 3rd Great Grandfathers might be buried. I say “might” because there a no surviving burial records, and there are dozens of stones so weathered that they are unreadable. It is a small cemetery, and apparently there is currently no caretaker, but I am so glad I was able to go there.