NAVIGATING 
ELROD CEMETERY.

The Elrod Cemetery Association commissioned an in-depth digital survey and mapping project in 2022.  This project created an exhaustive digital database of historic burial information and resulted in a new layout and map of the property.

In order to better manage two centuries of monuments and simplify navigation and record keeping, the Elrod Cemetery Association has adopted a grid-based addressing system that assigns a unique address to every space on the property. 

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It is important to remember this is a very old cemetery... rows are not straight, graves were dug in different dimensions, and at least three different layouts have been followed over the years. 

The Elrod Cemetery grid was developed primarily to help management track grave ownership and historical data. The addressing system may seem a bit complicated at first--especially in the oldest parts of the cemetery where monuments lines run at different angles--but from drawing on best practices from other historic cemeteries, it is hoped visitors can use the system to locate loved ones and identify graves available for sale. 

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TIPS FOR USING THE ELROD CEMETERY GRID:​

• ​​Burgess Falls Road (State Hwy. 135) runs along the West end of Elrod Cemetery. A visitor facing the front gates from within the cemetery grounds is facing West with North on their right side and South to their left. East will be directly behind them.

• All graves in Elrod Cemetery face East. This means the feet of the interred person will be on the eastern-most end of the grave with their headstone placed on the west end.

• All graves in Elrod Cemetery are 4 feet wide by 10 feet long. There is no space between graves.

• The address grid starts from the southeast corner of the cemetery at "A1." "A" names the first row running South to North parallel to the road bounding the "back" of the property (i.e., the road that passes directly in front of the Native American statue)."1" identifies the first column running East to West. Working from this point, letters A-X serve as labels for all rows, and numbers 1-19 label the columns of the grid. 

• A metal pin with the grid address is placed in the ground at each intersection of the grid. A visitor following the "P" row North until reaching the 12th column, will encounter a pin labeled, "P12." When standing on that pin, the grid space directly to the North and West of the pin, bears the address marked on the pin. For example: when standing on P12 while facing West towards Burgess Falls Road,  the grid space addressed as "P12" will be on the visitors right

• The Elrod Cemetery address grid creates named blocks measuring 16 feet wide by 9 feet long. This means there are 4 graves within each named block (i.e., "P12" contains 4 graves). Each grave is individually labeled "A-D" from "P12-A" on the southernmost end of the block to "P12-D on the northern most end of the block just before the "P13" pin. 

• All graves in Elrod Cemetery are addressed based on where the foot of the grave lies on the grid. This means that a person interred in "P12-A" will have their foot stone on the "P" row and their headstone on the "Q" row. A headstone found on the "Q" row will have an address starting with "P" in the Elrod Cemetery database.

• Older "legacy" graves do not conform to the monument lines of the cemetery grid. Older graves and those falling outside of the monument lines established by the cemetery grid are addressed as closely as possible. Visitors will note some addresses on older graves may be three to five feet outside of the current grid lines. These graves are assigned addresses for tracking and data management purposes, but may not necessarily line up with the address they are assigned on the grid. If the address shown in the Burial Index does not lead directly to the grave being researched, visitors are encouraged to search the area surrounding the address given. 

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