Marion Co TOC

Trying to arrange the cemetery information here on the Marion County site has been challenging. The outgrowth of that challenge is this Introduction page to furnish you a bit of information to understand what's found in the Cemeteries sections and links to quickly get you where you want to go.

History of Marion Co Cemeteries. This page includes an overview of the history of the cemeteries in Marion Co along with the history and locations for individual cemeteries. Many of these individual cemetery histories include the surnames of families known to have been buried in the cemetery which is a help if there are no existing head stones.

Cemeteries is an alphabetical listing of all of the Marion Co cemeteries I've been able to locate. The cemetery name, location, links to pages here on the Marion Co site, links to outside sites such as Find-A-Grave and other information about the individual cemetery are included.

Pleasant Ridge Cemetery needs a special mention here. Pleasant Ridge is one of the largest cemeteries in Marion Co. Years ago Max Parnell surveyed the cemetery, recording names, dates, etc. He then undertook the task of locating an obituary for every name on his survey. He even located obituaries that reported an individual had been buried in the cemetery even if he could not locate a headstone in the cemetery and he included it in his obituary collection. He transcribed each obituary and cross referenced it to the cemetery survey. This was a massive project. I can't thank Max enough for allowing his information to placed online here at the Marion Co site.

Bull Shoals Cemetery Relocation Project. Please take a minute to familiarize yourself about the relocated cemeteries information and maps you'll find here in the Cemeteries section. If you don't there's a possibility you will miss information that will help you understand what you're looking at.
     The name of the original Marion Co relocated cemetery is included in the list of Marion Co cemeteries with a link to the survey information. Each cemetery has its own page that includes the information found on each survey map and, if I received a survey map for that cemetery, the link to the survey map. There are also links to the survey information (and maps) for some of the relocated cemeteries in Boone and Baxter AR counties and Ozark and Taney MO counties.

pdf Township Map The cemetery locations found within the Cemeteries of Marion Co listing (above) and on the Relocated Cemeteries pages are noted as Sections, Townships and Ranges (Sx TSxxN RxxW) and/or a Marion Co Township name. If you are not familiar with the US Public Domain Survey designations and county Townships please visit Understanding Townships for a quick explanation. County Townships were often used on the US Federal Census, but county townships boundaries or even names changed over time. The township on a particular census might not be the same as today's. This Township map (along with Township Timeline of Formation & Changes) will help you identify the correct township

In all of the above information you still might not find your ancestor. Many graves, especially older graves, lack a "store bought" tombstone and are either unmarked or marked by a field stone or rock. Knowing where your ancestor lived is a step to determining which cemetery was most likely used. Something that might help with that is to visit Landowner Maps and first owner listings here on the Marion Co site. Using the section, township & range location from a cemetery will help you find the correct map. These maps do not list cemeteries but will give you the names of the first landowners in that sections.