Oakwood Cemetery Registers

Syracuse University Libraries

Oakwood Cemetery Register Book 1 - Image Source

Collection Facts

Extent:

Dates of Original:

1859 - 1902

Historical Context

Oakwood Cemetery, created in 1859, is one of the largest in Central New York, laid out in a park-like plan on 160 acres adjacent to Syracuse University. The cemetery reflects Syracuse's past status as an economic engine and contains the burials of city leaders, as well as middle– and working-class people who helped build the city. It contains many military burials, including generals and soldiers from the Civil War. In addition to its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, it is architecturally significant. The cemetery boasts eight monuments included on the Smithsonian Preservation of Cultural Property, and includes structures by nationally well-known New York architects such as Joseph Lyman Silsbee.

Scope of Collection

This collection contains three bound volumes of burial registers from Oakwood Cemetery, comprising approximately 1500 pages of information that detail more than 35,000 decedent records. The records include details such as name of the deceased, birth date, place of death, last residence, date of death, date of internment, cause of death, relatives of the deceased, the place of burial, and other additional notes.
These unique burial registers span a time period from the late 1850s to February 1977.

The tabular data for the first register has been transcribed and is fully searchable. Additional transcriptions for the remaining registers are underway.

The original documents are the property of Oakwood Cemetery Preservation Association and have been published on their behalf through a collaboration between the Syracuse University Libraries, the Newhouse School of Journalism at Syracuse University, and the Central New York Library Resources Council.

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Recording & registration

Cemeteries

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Collection Type:

Records & Ephemera