Then you may be interested in one of the latest offerings from the North Carolina State Archives & State Library of North Carolina. In the past several weeks, they have added scans of the cemetery surveys done across the state by the Works Progress Administration (now called Works Projects Administration).
Done as part of the WPA Historical Records Survey, these files are a great resource as they focused on recording burials that occurred before 1914. The surveys were conducted over a several year time span ( I think the 1930s and 1940s) and have thousands of names included.
Granted, not all the information will be accurate – typos abound, some cemeteries are not listed, some are listed with erroneous locations, etc., but it will not hurt to check. There are records for 97 counties – you have to check these out! You can find them at http://goo.gl/Lw67D. More information about the project can be read on the NC State Archives blog.
If you want to stay on top of new things as added, you may wish to follow Ashley, an archivist there, who posts regularly to Twitter as items are added. Wouldn’t it be great if more states put their WPA files online? Do you know of any others that do? If so, please share by leaving a comment.
where do I find the WPA Cemetery transcription’s at on this website ?
Hi Linda, how perfectly timed your inquiry. I was just looking at these last night and realized that the state library has changed the URL. You can now find the transcriptions at http://goo.gl/Lw67D. I have updated the URL in the news story about them. Thanks!