Works Progress Administration Cemetery Indexes

alllll been written down....

The 1930's were a new era of federal government bureaucracies.  All sorts of projects sprung up under the federal government, from building dams, to fixing highways to....genealogy!

In the 1930's President Roosevelt's "New Deal" also included a provision to index graves in the United State through the Works Project Administration (WPA).  While the WPA was controversial and considered wasteful by many (it even funded depression era tap-dancing lessons to lift American's spirits!) and eventually was terminated, the work done by the WPA has greatly benefited many aspects of genealogy including grave indexes.

While there isn't a single WPA grave index available online, they are slowly making their way to the internet and being indexed digitally.

Personally, while I am very fond of Find A Grave because of the easy accessibility, my ability to interact with others, request photos, include photos, attach obituaries and link family members, it doesn't have everything in it.

So, if you find you get stuck looking for a grave, do an internet search for a WPA Cemetery Index for the county/state you're looking for and you might just strike gold!  From there you can add an entry to Find A Grave and submit a photo request to confirm the info contained in the index.

As always, if a grave is unmarked anymore, request a photo of the empty spot so that others in the future know not to go looking for it still.