Submission

Corrections
MS Word input form
Printable input form
Spreadsheet input form

Fields

RECNO
Prefix
Last Name
First Name
Middle Initial/Name
Suffix
Maiden Name
Relationship
Sex
Birth Day/Month/Year
Death Day/Month/Year
Age at death
Death Location
Number of graves
Transcription
Comments
Transcriber's Name
Have Pictures
Cemetery Number
Section/Stone Number
Genealogy Person Number
Veteran
Stone Composition
Stone Shape
Stone Condition
Stone State
Carving
Legibility
Stone Dimensions
Footstone
Stone still exists
Last seen year
Carver's name
How ID Carver
Other information

Hartland Cemetery Information Submission

We have set up several ways that you can contribute to the Hartland Cemetery information. We greatly appreciate your help.

  • Corrections: If you see information on our cemetery web pages or in the printed cemetery materials at the Society museum, please contact Brad Hadley. Specify which cemetery and gravestone that is in error, what the correct information is, and the source of your information. If you have many corrections, please contact Brad to discuss the best way to submit them.
  • New gravestone information: There are several options for submitting new gravestone information. The method you use will depend on the number of stones you are submitting and your preferences. Feel free to contact Brad before submitting the information.

    It is critical that the information we collect be accurate and complete. Feel free to contact Brad Hadley or Bev Lasure before collecting and submitting the information. Alternatives for submitting new gravestone information include:

    • MS Word form. Right-click here and save the file to the folder you prefer. Open the file using MS Word and save it with a new file name before entering any information. When you have entered the information, save the file and email to Brad Hadley.
    • Printable form. You have two choices for printing a form that your can fill out by hand. One is to right-click here and save the file to the folder you prefer. Open the file with MS Word and then print.

      The other is to click here for a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) version of the printable form. After filling out the form by hand, send to Brad.

    • MS 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 MS Excel and save it with a new file name before entering any information. When you have entered the information, save the file and email to Brad Hadley. The form will be processed to directly load 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, MARY JONES|wife of|JOHN SMITH|died|May 2, 1845 results in:

      MARY JONES
      wife of
      JOHN SMITH
      died
      May 2, 1845

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 or in the Cemetery Books.

  • RECNO: This is an identification number assigned to each person who is buried, or who is represented on a stone in a Hartland cemetery. The number has no meaning in itself.

    If a gravestone represents more than one person, each person has a unique 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., etc. are generally not included in this field. However, if one of these titles is included on the gravestone, it is reflected in the Transcription filed, which is always to match exactly to what is on the stone.
  • Last name: The 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 name, even if the person went by a different name during his/her lifetime. Use the Comment field to explain any unconventional use of names.
  • Middle Name/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 at birth.
  • Sex: Male or Female. Although sex is usually obvious based upon the first name, there are sometimes 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 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 year of life or Aged: Use whichever form is on the stone. If neither is on the stone and you know the information, use the Aged format.
  • Place of Death: Include if on the stone or known from other sources. Use the format: town, state using the 2-character state form.
  • Number of Graves: If this is a single gravestone, enter 1. If multiple people are represented by this stone, include the number in this field. For double stones or multi-sided stones, that is stones that are actually one piece, consider them one stone with more than one person.
  • Have Pic?: Indicate whether or not you have a picture for this person. 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 put in 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: Put in the cemetery name. If the gravestone is not in one of the cemeteries already listed at the web site, include a name in this field, but plan to discuss with the Cemetery coordinator before the information is loaded.
  • Section/Stone Number: Consult the Cemetery information pages for information about how stones within a cemetery are numbered. Smaller cemeteries might not be divided into sections and their stones are just numbered either by row or consecutively. Other cemeteries are divided into sections. Enter the appropriate section and stone number that conforms to the standard for that cemetery.
  • Genealogy ID: Leave blank. This field is for a planned future function.
  • Veteran: If the person was a veteran, check yes. Otherwise leave blank or check no. If you have checked Yes, indicate the war he/she served in.
  • Stone Composition: Indicate the material of the gravestone.
  • Stone Shape: Indicate the shape of the stone or marker. The most common shapes are: Square Top, Fancy Top, Rounded Top, Pointed Top, Crude Fieldstone, Tomb, Statue, Cross Marker, Star of David, Box Tomb, Table Tomb, or Other (describe).
  • 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 (only one is allowed). 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 size, rounded to the nearest whole inch.
  • Footstone: Check Yes if there is a footstone for this grave.
  • Stone still exists: Check yes if the stone still exists, even if it cannot be read, is in poor condition, or is down or broken. If the stone 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 not now there, No should be checked and the year of the prior survey included.
  • Transcriber: If you would like your name (and optionally your email address) included in the records for this stone, provide the information in this field.
  • Stone Carving: Indicate any significant carvings that appear on this stone. Common carvings include: Skull, Skull with wings, Winged creature (other), Angel/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, included his/her name and 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: This is an exact transcription of what is written on the stone, including line break, 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 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. Indicate a blank line, for example between two people on a single marker, with two vertical bars with a space between (| |). There is no 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 as much as 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.