Loading...Avoid a grisly death
Cemeteries can be dangerous so never go alone or at night. You may fall into an empty grave, as others have before. One historian recalls tripping over some loose dirt and winding up with one foot in the grave, so to speak.
Spend some time with family
this Halloween.
Dig up details on your ancestors in our creepiest collections.
Halloween is the perfect time to celebrate the peculiar people in your family that helped make you one of a kind. Perhaps they were convicted witches. Maybe they still haunt ghost towns in Oregon. Feel free to discover the skeletons in your closet as you search some of our scariest collections.
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Search records from our creepiest collections.
(Cemetery and gravestone collections)
Featured Collections
Salem Witches Collection (Index) |
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This collection lists over 200 individuals accused of witchcraft in New England between 1647 and 1697, but only those who were formally accused and went to trial in a town court proceeding. Unfortunately, many "accusations" took place on an informal basis or never actually reached trial. This database lists the year the accused stood trial, a first and last name, the town or village where the trial took place and the outcome of the trial (confession, acquittal, execution, escape, etc.) |
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Selected U.S. Headstone Photos
This photo collection contains more than 74,000 headstones (some with multiple names) for individuals who died in the early 19th century through the present day.
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More spine-chilling collections:
Tales from the Crypt: Digging for Information
Expert advice on family history research in cemeteries.
Ever think about getting started with your family history? Cemeteries may be the perfect place to do some digging for new details. You can find out a lot by delving into the lives and deaths of the dearly departed. Here’s our advice:
Bring essential supplies
Unless your memory is eerily photographic, bring a camera, a notepad or a tape recorder. You can also bring crayons and paper for grave rubbings, although you'll need permission from the cemetery office first. To avoid wandering, ask for a map of the site at the cemetery office.
Find secrets in the office
A cemetery office assistant can help you track down key bits of information like your ancestor's death date, burial date and even next of kin. This information can lead you to other important records.
Take it from the tombstone
There are more to tombstones than names, birth dates and death dates. Symbols like a compass or crescent moon can reveal that your great-grandfather was a Freemason or a Shriner. Also, an anchor indicates a mariner and an open bible indicates a minister. Check the back of every tombstone too. Family members sharing burial plots would often share tombstones.
Look for strange graves
Footstones were added to gravesites from the 19th century supposedly to keep coffin-less feet from making an appearance above ground. Other variations on traditional tombstones included box tombs, body stones from medieval times, tomb tables from the American Colonial era and barrel vaults.
Beware of digging too deep
You could actually uncover some morbid information. One such story involves a historian who managed to locate an obituary based on records from a cemetery office revealing that her great-aunt had been murdered by her great-uncle.
