Friends of Greenwood Cemetery Restoration Project

Greenwood Cemetery is the oldest non-sectarian cemetery for African Americans in the St. Louis area. It is the final resting place of more than 50,000 African Americans including some who influenced both national and local history such as Harriet Scott and Charlton Hunt Tandy. Greenwood offers a glimpse into 19^th and 20^th century African American St.Louis.

Documentation is a critical part of the restoration project. Most of Greenwood's early written records have been lost or are incomplete or illegible. The Records and Research Committee is working on several projects to improve Greenwood's records.

Our Volunteers Keep Us Going! Without their help and support we would not be able to continue. Folks from the Mormon Church have worked at Greenwood four times in as many months. They are phenomenal!

Thank You to: The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints.

Greenwood Cemetery

6571 St. Louis Ave Hillsdale, Mo 63121

Burial Records:

… Research Missouri Online Death Certificates for Greenwood Cemetery burials and record entries in excel data base.

Obituaries:

… Research selected individual burials and create a brief bio or “obituary” for that person.

Headstones:

… Photograph assigned headstones at the cemetery. Photographs will need to be provided to the Friends of Greenwood via portable digital media.

Mapping:

…Locate and record headstones. Work in groups of three. One person to read burial records, one person to record data, and one person to probe for and read headstone. (This person needs to be able to do a lot of stooping and bending.)

I’m very excited about Greenwood Cemetery from a research standpoint. This will be the first year that the grounds and maintenance committee will not need my help! I’m hoping to put together as many research teams as possible to work on mapping and photography. We will need at least three people per team and at least one will need to be able to stoop, bend and squat! This is going to be quite a project. In addition to restoring Greenwood Cemeteries burial records, recreating Greenwood's plat records, we will be contributing to a powerful African American family history research document. When complete, Greenwood's burial documents will contain the required legal burial information in addition they will link to headstone and obituary information and will include other comments found on burial records and in some cases death certificates. If you would like to help or if you know someone who would like to help, contact me. ettadaniels@charter.net Think of Greenwood for schools and churches needing community service projects as well. My time is somewhat flexible so there’s no rigid schedule. We will work whenever three or more people are available.