DESCRIPTION:

These cemetery records represent seventy-six counties and Graceland Cemetery of Sioux City, Iowa that were transcribed by the Works Project Administration, Graves Registration Project. This collection is the largest compilation of the Iowa WPA cemetery records found in one single place. The database was created from copies of the transcriptions created by the Works Progress Administration; because of multi-generational copies some names were hard to decipher. As with any genealogical index, the data is to be used as a finding aid to original records. Records in this database generally include the page number where the record can be found in the WPA index, the name of the deceased, birth date, death date, age, cemetery name, town name, and additional comments if any. This collection of Iowa Cemetery records represents an important tool in finding your early Iowa ancestors.

The following counties are included in this database:

Adair, Adams, Allamakee, Audubon, Black Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Butler, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Cedar, Cerro Gordo, Chickasaw, Clarke, Clay, Clayton, Crawford, Davis, Decatur, Delaware, Dickinson, Emmet, Fayette, Floyd, Franklin, Fremont, Greene, Grundy, Guthrie, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Jones, Keokuk, Kossuth, Lee, Linn, Louisa, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mills, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, Muscatine, O’Brien, Page, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Pocahontas, Polk, Poweshiek, Ringgold, Sac, Scott, Shelby, Sioux, Sioux City, Story, Tama, Taylor, Union, Van Buren, Wapello, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Winneshiek, Woodbury, Worth, and Wright.

The Works Project Administration was a relief program created during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s. The program provided employment for millions of people during the Great Depression.

There were twenty counties that were not indexed by the WPA; therefore, are not included in this database. They are the following: Appanoose, Benton, Cherokee, Clinton, Dallas, Des Moines, Hamilton, Henry,Howard, Humboldt, Ida, Iowa, Jasper, Lucas, Lyon, Monona, Osceola,Pottawattamie, Warren, and Winnebago.