Source: Jan Sellers Coward Collection, undated, East Carolina Manuscript Collection, #1112

Staff Person: Nanette Hardison

Description:

The photograph shown above, taken probably in the 1960s by Jan Sellers Coward, is of the Cromwell family graveyard near the former site of Cromwell Hall, which is now lost. The Cromwell graveyard is located between Greenville and Tarboro, North Carolina, on Highway 33. Although privately owned cemeteries such as this one are generally no longer in use because of state regulations, they continue to be an important part of North Carolina's rural landscape.

Family graveyards are a good informational source for anyone doing genealogical research, but like the Cromwell graveyard, these privately owned burial sites can be in obscure locations and long forgotten by family members. It is important for people working on their family histories to question older family members on the existence of a family owned cemetery or to look out for any information that might suggest the existence of such a cemetery.

9/12/2008