Site News and Updates

Current Updates and Enhancements

July 2008 - January 2009
January - June 2008

Help wanted! We are currently compiling a book on the history of the Town of Orleans and Penet Square, Jefferson County and are in need of pictures that depict the history of the Town. We are looking for virtually any photograph that helps document 200 years of the Town's history to include people, places, and things. If desired, full credit will be given for all contributions. If you have anything your are willing to contribute, please contact us through the Contact page.

February 4, 2009
The initial review of photos taken last summer is nearing completion. Updates have been posted to the Burial Collection and encompasses cemeteries throughout the county, with the majority related to cemeteries in the Towns of Hounsfield, Henderson, Lyme, Orleans, and Rutland. In conjunction with reading gravestones, work continues on renumbering the gravestone photographs as a step towards being able to post the photos online.

The Municipality Resource page has been update. The address for the Town of Hounsfield was inadvertently ommitted.

The overall appearance of the site has been updated to, hopefully, make it easier to read and navigate. Along with the appearance, most of the search functions have been revised to correct errors and to add more consistent functionality to search options.

January 25, 2009 - Happy New Year!
Numerous updates have been posted to the Burials Collection. Most of these consist of corrections or additions to existing burial records. The Marriage Collection has been expanded with both new additions and the inclusion of additional source information. All of the additions to the Marriage Collection are from the pre-1900s. The Site Status page has also been modified to reflect the correct number of marriages in the Marriage Collection.

The site has been relocated to a new server, which was part of the reason for the delay in getting some of the changes posted. Ideally it is more stable and hopefully faster. This move will also permit us to expand some of our collections and is one more step that will enable us to provide gravestones online. One of the issues we face is having sufficient space to put over 100,000 gravestone photos online.

November 30
Numerous units were updated in the Civil War Collection and should now reflect the correct unit that individuals were mustered into. Additional sources were added to the Marriage Collection along with numerous corrections to the spelling of names and place of marriage.

Work continues on enhancing the search feature in many of the collections. Once complete all searches, with the exception of the site wide surname search, will permit at least the ability to search by surname and given name. Where appropriate, the ability to search by maiden name and spouse's first name is also being added.

November 23
Updates to the site were delayed as we attempted to resolve several issues with the search functions. Searches in all the collections are being redesigned and hopefully improved. Many have been expanded to include options such as maiden name and spouse's first name. The problem with surnames that contain an apostrophe, such as O'Brien, has been resolved for most of the searches and those that have not been fixed should be this week. Please let us know if we've introduced any errors with these fixes.

Marriage Collection: updated with new additions and additional source information. Most of the updates are pre-1900.

Civil War Collection: corrections to unit designations.

Burial collection: updates to burials in the following cemeteries:
- Adams Rural Cemetery, Town of Adams: most of the updates are to the "old ground" portion. Heavy leaf drop and numerous tree braches that were down as a result of the last snow precluded more extensive work.
- Clayton Village Cemetery, Town of Alexandria: approximately 200 stones photographed;
- Highland Park Cemetery, Town of Alexandria: an additional 10% of this cemetery was photographed.
- Redwood Cemetery, Town of Alexandria: Approximately 25% of the cemetery was inventoried.
- St Xavier Cemetery (St Francis Xavier Cemetery), Town of Alexandria: Approximately 30% of the cemetery inventoried.

It is becoming extremely difficult to distinguish between Redwood Cemetery and St. Xavier Cemetery as there is no clear boundary between the two. According to the caretaker the boundary is 20 feet from the road; however, it appears that this is not being strictly enforced. Consequently some burials for St Xavier are reported in Redwood and some for Redwood are listed in St. Xavier.

October 26
We had an opportunity to visit Gotham Street Cemetery, Town of Watertown. This cemetery is in extremely poor condition as most of the stones are either broken, fallen, or buried. Of the 36 burials previously recorded by the DAR only 11 were identified. One complete stone is still standing: Ursulia Mills (dod: 1806) and Abitha Mills (dod: 1816), the wives of David Mills. A partial stone is standing, John Gotham. Two monuments, one each for the Sigourney and Taylor families, have fallen. The DAR recorded the burial of Lydia Butterfield, her stone is now located in the Parker Family Cemetery, Town of Watertown. The Ball monument, which was not recorded by the DAR, was moved to Brookside Cemetery in 1993. Although all visible stones / stone fragments were photographed, heavy leave drop and vegetation precluded a more detailed inventory. We plan on returning in the spring to do a thorough inventory. Burials for this cemetery have been added to the Burials Collection.

A frequently requested option has been added to the search results pages. In addition to next, previous, first, and last page options, you can now go to a specific page in the returned search results. This option should be available on all search results pages where the search returns more than one page of information. Please let us know if this does not work correctly or has introduced errors on any of the pages.

Along with the addition of the "Go to page" option, the number of cemeteries that permit browsing burials has been increased. The previous limitation was partially the result of the number of pages involved. The current goal is to have the option of browsing all burials by cemetery available for all cemeteries.

Links and Resources now includes points of contact, addresses, and telephone numbers for municipalities in Jefferson County. If the municipality has an "official" web site, the link to that is included as well. Similar directories are being compiled for Lewis and St. Lawrence Counties.

Curious about how many entries are in each of the Collections? When was a Collection last updated? A site status is now available. The Site Status page provides a count of records in each of the Collections. It also lists when the last update was posted to each collection and a little bit about which collections we're working on.

October 19
Surname Search has been implemented and added to the menu options. This search function looks at all the collections that are database driven, such as Burials, Marriages, Business Directories, etc. It currently does not search those Studies that are not data driven: Antwerp Churches, Historic Buildings, and Families. As there are numerous variations for any given surname, searching for the first four or five letters is typically more productive. Alternate spellings should also be tried as most of the surnames recorded are a literal transcription from the original source documents. If you are unable to see the Surname Search option in the site menu, it is always available on the Home page. If you encounter any issues with the Surname Search, please let us know. Our primary concern is for those individuals that are using a dial-up connection who may experience timeout issues.

Over the last two weeks five cemeteries were visited and the Burial Collection has been updated with the results from those visits. With this latest work, we now have over 38,000 photos of burials in Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego Counties.

Brownville Cemetery, Town of Brownville: The older portion of the right side side has been fully photographed. We are attempting to locate a section map of the cemetery so we can associate burials with a specific section.

Felts Mills Cemetery, Town of Rutland: Most of the older ground has been photographed along with select portions of the newer areas. We are in the process of associating burials to specific sections within the cemetery. Currently burials do not reflect sections, but will once the review is complete.

North Watertown Cemetery, City of Watertown: Select portions of Section L were photographed.

Sanford Corners Cemetery (aka. Calcium Cemetery), Town of Leray: Most of the effort was in the older portion of the cemetery as we attempt to photograph gravestones for burials prior to 1850. It appears that the earliest burial in this cemetery was in 1813.

 Sulphur Springs Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield: Section B is now complete. The remainder of Section A and all of Section D still need to be inventoried.

October 6
Dodge Cemetery (aka Dodge Bay Cemetery), Town of Cape Vincent was visited and fully inventoried. This cemetery contains six burials of the Dodge family. The results of this inventory have been posted to the Burials Collection and the cemetery has been added to the Cemetery Collection.

Allen Family Cemetery, Town of Brownville: Based on recently provided information, we believe we now have as complete an inventory as possible for this cemetery. As near as can be determined five individuals are buried in the cemetery: Richard and Rachel Taylor, Samuel Allen (a cousin of the Allen family who took sick at Sackets Harbor during the War of 1812 and died at the Allen family farm), and Mr. and Mrs. Richardson Avery (friends of the Allen family). The Burial Collection reflects this new information.

Brookside Cemetery, City of Watertown: minor updates to numerous sections. Mostly corrections to previously photographed gravestones.

Brownville Cemetery, Town of Brownville: Portions of Sections 1 and 2 were inventoried and over 500 stones were photographed. Approximately 50% of the photos have been reviewed and updates have been posted.

Lakeside Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield: The inventory of Section E is complete and we are now working on Section F, which is approximately 50% complete. Over two-thirds of this cemetery has been photographed. Updates have been posted.

Market Street Cemetery, Town of Cape Vincent: The inventory of this cemetery is now approximately 80% complete. It appears that the restoration that has been underway is now complete. Most of the photos from this visit have been reviewed and updates posted.

North Watertown Cemetery, City of Watertown: A partial inventory was conducted of Sections J, K, and the Old Ground. Updates have been posted.

St. Lawrence Union Cemetery, Town of Cape Vincent: A partial inventory was conducted of all three sections (left, middle, and right). It appears that the severe weather we've experienced this summer has taken it's toll on a number of stones. Results of this visit has been posted.

St. Mary's Cemetery, Town of Clayton: A partial inventory of the new portion of this cemetery was conducted. Updates have been posted.

September 28
Updates were not posted last weekend due to prior commitments.

A new Collection, Town Tax Rolls, has been added to the site. This collection contains transcriptions of Tax Roll books maintained by the Town Tax Collectors. This initial installment contains tax rolls for the Town of Champion (1838) and the Town of Philadelphia (1823). The 1855 Tax Rolls for the Town of Orleans is currently being transcribed.

During the last two weeks, we had the opportunity to visit the Allen Family Burial Ground and 3 other cemeteries during the last two weeks. The following updates have been posted:

Allen Family Burial Ground: This cemetery is located on private property in the Town of Brownville and is exceptionally well maintained. This cemetery is believed to contain between 10 and 12 burials; however, only 3 have markers with inscriptions. The most notable burials are Samuel Allen (1796-1814), Richardson Avery (1779-1847), and Richard Taylor (1751-1830). All three were veterans of the War of 1812. Currently only those three are listed in the Burial Collection. We hope to have additional burials posted in the near future.

Pierrepont Manor Cemetery (aka Zion Church Cemetery), Town of Ellisburg: Although all the stones were photographed, we did not have time to do a detailed inventory. Consequently some of the readings are not as complete as we would like. Also there are about 20 stones that were unreadable without cleaning. Of the approximate 600 burials believed to be in this cemetery, 567 have been recorded. Updates have been posted to the Burial Collection.

North Watertown Cemetery, City of Watertown: A partial inventory was conducted of Section W. Updates have been posted.

Lakeside Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield: Sections A, A Extension, and B are now complete, Section E is nearly complete. With this update, over 2,000 of the approximately 3,100 inscriptions in this cemetery have been photographed.

Ellisburg Cemetery, Town of Ellisburg: Portions of the older section were inventoried along with select portions of some of the newer sections. Updates have been posted.

September 14
Our sincere thanks to everyone that have contributed photos of gravestones for our collection. We are currently working on those photos so that they can be incorporated into the collection. Four cemeteries were visited this week and the results have been posted to the burial collection.

Kinne Cemetery, Town of Antwerp: Prior pressure washing of stones in this cemetery has rendered numerous stones virtually unreadable. Along with the damage done by pressure washing, there are a number of stones that are either face down or weathered beyond recognition. Consequently, although a full photographic inventory was conducted, only 222 of the reported 261 burials/inscriptions were able to be confirmed. Since burials continue to be made in this cemetery, the status has been changed in the cemetery description from inactive to active.

Sulphur Springs Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield: Inventory of this cemetery continues. The inventory of sections C and E are complete, section B is nearly complete, and work continues on section A. Some issues still remain with a few burials being identified in section A that should be in C. Also burials in the Fawdry Lot are currently listed in section A; however, the Fawdry Lot is actually not a part of any section. Based on a review of deeds, it appears that the Fawdry Lot was established prior to the incorporation of the cemetery association and has never been included in any of the sections. The inventory of this cemetery is about 50% complete.

Lakeside Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield: The inventory of Section A is nearly complete. The original portion of this section is complete and work is currently under way to complete the newer portion. To simplify finding stones in this section, we have arbitrarily designated the newer portion as A-Extension (AE). The inventory of section B continues and is taking significantly longer than anticipated because of the number of stones that require cleaning prior to getting an accurate transcription. A small portion of section C was inventoried in response to a request. Approximately 50% of this cemetery has now been inventoried and over 1,500 names associated with it now have photos available.

Redwood Cemetery, Town of Alexandria: A short visit with approximately 150 stones photographed.

September 7
This last week was spent on completing the original portions of Lakeside Cemetery and Sulphur Springs Cemetery, both in the Town of Hounsfield, and Hillside Cemetery (aka Hillside Champion Cemetery), Town of Champion. A portion of the Old Ground section of Brookside Cemetery, Town of Watertown and portions of Oakwood Cemetery, Town of Theresa were also partially inventoried.

Lakeside Cemetery: The portion of this cemetery that was donated to the Village of Sackets Harbor by Elisha Camp in 1818 is nearly complete. This area, which is approximately 2 acres in size, now comprises most of sections A and B. The section A portion is complete and the section B portion is nearly complete. Over one-third of this cemetery has now been inventoried. Burials in this cemetery are being mapped to both section and lot. Updates have been posted to the burials collection.

Hillside Cemetery (aka Hillside Champion): The oldest portion of this cemetery has been fully inventoried. We are currently working on the sections that date from the mid-1800s and later. The inventory of this cemetery is about 50% complete and updates have been posted to the burials collection.

Sulphur Springs Cemetery: The earliest portion of this cemetery has been inventoried and we are in the process of mapping those burials to specific lots and sections. We were finally able to determine that some of the field stones in this cemetery may in fact have inscriptions. One of the field stones, which appears to be in the J Gardner lot in Section C, is inscribed with R F 1837. We're now going to go back and relook at the other field stones to determine if they have an inscriptions. A number of burials were initially recorded in the wrong section. This is in the process of being corrected and the correct sections will be reflected in next week's update.

Brookside Cemetery: The visit to this cemetery was in response to a photo request. During this visit, several stones were identified for children of Jabez and Hannah Foster, to include one that had not been previously identified as being in this cemetery. It appears that Jabez and Hannah Foster had two sons named Ambrose Sylvester who died in infancy. One died June 25, 1806 at the age of 3y7m and the other November 16?, 1808 at the age of 6 months. Only one of these children had previously been identified. Additionally the grave for Elisha Sawyer was identified (the son of Thomas died July 25, 1808 at the age of 16 years) was identified. Elisha's burial had not been recorded in either the cemetery's records or in prior readings. A number of other gravestones were photographed and all updates have been posted.

Oakwood Cemetery: Visit was to verify the completion of the inventory of Section E, which is complete. During the visit a partial inventory was conducted of Sections D and F.

August 31
A very busy week with quite a number of updates/additions to the collections. Also an error was fixed with the display of individual burial information. The individual's title was not displaying. This error has been corrected.

Bentley Family Cemetery: This cemetery, located in the Town of Champion, was visited on August 25th and was inventoried as fully as possible given it's current condition. Although the cemetery is heavily overgrown, most of the stones are readable. The most notable burials are John Pardee, who served in the Revolutionary War, his wife Hanna Gage, Capt William Bentley, who served in the Revolutionary War, his wife Anna, and Elijah Fulton Esq. Of the reported 7 burials, we were able to positively identify 6.

In addition to the Bentley Family Cemetery the following cemeteries were visited and updates to the Burial Collection has been posted:

Hillside Cemetery (aka. Hillside-Champion), Town of Champion: This cemetery should be complete before the end of summer and is now slightly over 50% complete. Nearly all of the older sections are finished. Select portions of the newer sections have also been completed. Section information is being added to individual burials as we work our way through the various sections. Over 600 individual burials have been recorded and stones photographed in this cemetery.

Sunnyside Cemetery, (aka F W Woolworth Cemetery), Town of Champion: A partial inventory was performed. We currently have photos available for 395 individuals identified on gravestones in this cemetery.

Lakeside Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield: The detailed inventory of this cemetery continues. The oldest portion this cemetery, which was donated to the Village of Sackets Harbor by Elisha Camp in 1818, is nearly complete.

North Watertown Cemetery, City of Watertown: Minor update primarily in Section S.

August 24
Help us preserve a bit of history. We've been asked to produce a book on the history of the Town of Orleans and Penet Square. The book will mainly consist of a photographic history of the town to include the hamlets of La Fargeville, Stone Mills, Fishers Landing, Fine View, TI Park, and Omar, as well as the rural areas. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated. To make a contribution, please contact us through the Contact page.

The Postcard Collection is now online. This initial installment deals with the history of Watertown. As we have time to scan and edit all of the postcards in our collection, additional areas will be included. As a word of caution, some of the images are quite large and may take a considerable amount of time to view if you're on a dialup connection.

Burials now reflect the section of the cemetery in which the burial is located. Of the 111,000 burials online, approximately 32,000 now reflect the section information. Typically section information is only available for larger cemeteries that contain over 1,000 burials. Not all cemeteries have clearly defined sections and in fact some of the larger cemeteries have never had delineated sections. For some cemeteries such as Parrish Cemetery, we've arbitrarily assigned sections. These arbitrary sections are only assigned to those cemeteries that have a clear division of sections. Usually these are defined by internal roads or lanes and are easily recognizable and not likely to be changed. In the case of Parrish Cemetery, it is clearly divided into 3 sections, which we've designated as Left, Middle, and Right. The orientation is based on standing on the road facing the cemetery. Designations such as "old" and "new" are generally not being used as it is seldom possible to distinguish between them.  As burial space becomes scarce in many active cemeteries, burials are being made in the "old" sections. Consequently that description is rapidly being rendered meaningless. The exception to this is when a particular section in  a cemetery is specifically designated as Old Ground on a cemetery map. Brookside Cemetery and North Watertown Cemetery both have sections specifically designated as Old Ground. For larger cemeteries with a cemetery association, we strongly encourage you to contact them prior to searching for a stone as our information for the most part is not based on "official" cemetery records. Please note that with few exceptions, we don't have maps showing the location of the various sections.

Minor updates to Lakeside Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield and Woodside Cemetery, Town of Ellisburg. These updates are based on recent visits and photo review.

August 18
Thanks to almost daily thunderstorms we've had to delay most of the updates. While we were able to visit a number of cemeteries in the Towns of Ellisburg and Hounsfield, we were not able to do a lot of computer work. Consequently some of the planned updates are pushed back a week. Based on the visits we were able to make this week, the following cemeteries have been updated:

Elmwood Cemetery, Town of Adams: brief visit with approximately 10% of the cemetery photographed.
Ellisburg Cemetery, Town of Ellisburg: a brief visit with approximately 10% of the cemetery photographed.
Maplewood Cemetery, Town of Ellisburg: a brief visit with approximately 10% of the cemetery photographed.
Woodside Cemetery, Town of Ellisburg: this was just about a full day visit with roughly 50% of the cemetery completed.
Lakeside Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield: the full inventory continues with approximately 30% of the cemetery completed.
Sulphur Springs Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield: full inventory continues with most of the older section now complete.

The addition of Section information to burial records is delayed until next weekend. The conversion of the section information that we currently hold is complete. Now it's just a matter of getting those burials posted. As most cemeteries don't either have sections defined or marked, only about 30% of the burials we currently hold will eventually have section information.

August 10
The three part series on Gravestone / Cemetery preservation is now complete and online. The Links and Resources page has been updated with inclusion of cemetery preservation sites and civil war related sites. Several additions to the site are nearing completion and should be online with next week's update. The two additions that should be ready are section information included with burials and Postcards. Although the weather has not been conducive to visiting cemeteries, we were able to visit three during the last week.

Corbin Cemetery, Town of Clayton - this was a revisit to review the nearly completed restoration work. All of the gravestones were again photographed and resulting updates have been posted.

Elmwood Cemetery, Town of Adams - a fairly brief visit as we attempted to locate a stone. During the visit, approximately 10% of the cemetery was photographed. Updates based on this visit have been posted.

Lutheran Cemetery, Town of Clayton - the visit to this cemetery was mainly to assist with the clean up of the George Kissel family lot. Many of the stones were photographed for the second time and updates resulting from the initial review have been posted. The photo review continues and we hope to have the final results posted with next week's update. We are indebted to Cathy Kissel for providing updates to our holdings based on family records for this cemetery.

August 5
Many of the pages have been recoded which should shorten page loading times. Although we don't believe anything was broken in the process, if you encounter broken or mangled pages please let us know. The rework of many of the pages is a prelude to new features that will be added over the next several weeks.

August 3
Based on user requests, the ability to browse all burials within individual cemeteries has been added. Currently this feature is only available for those cemeteries that we've fully inventoried, which represents 112 of the 198 cemeteries online. To use this feature, select the cemetery from the Cemetery Collection page, then select the the detail page for the cemetery your interested in. For those cemeteries that have this feature activated, you will see the option to 'view burials'. The burial list is sorted by surname, given name, middle name. We're aware of and are working on a solution to the issue of having to step through numerous pages for large cemeteries.

On the Burial Details page, you will notice that Section has been added. Currently the section is not being displayed. This is not an error in the system. Section information is being converted and should be available with next week's update. Unfortunately most cemeteries either don't have section maps or don't have sections within the cemetery delineated. Consequently section information will be limited to what information is available to us.

Although mother nature has not been kind - way too much rain. We were able to continue work on the inventory Sulphur Springs Cemetery and Lakeside Cemetery, both in the Town of Hounsfield. The results have been posted. Additionally the results of the full inventory of Bishop Cemetery, Town of Henderson has been posted.

July 27
On the 26th and 27th, the Town of Henderson sponsored a course on gravestone preservation. The course, presented by Jonathan Appell and hosted by Eric Anderson (Town of Henderson Historian), took place at Bishop Cemetery and provided a hands-on approach to grave stone cleaning and repair. We are indebted to the Town of Henderson for making this course possible.

As a result of the material presented during the course, the additional pages on Cemetery Preservation are slightly delayed. We want to ensure that the information we're providing is consistent with approved practices and techniques. We encourage anyone interested in gravestone conservation, repair, cleaning, and reading to visit Jonathan Appell's site at www.gravestoneconservation.com.

During the course of instruction, the participants conducted a full inventory of Bishop Cemetery. The results of this inventory are currently being reviewed and will be posted with the next site update.

Based on user input, we are working on an expansion to the site to include the ability to browse all of the burials in individual cemeteries. Initially this will be restricted to those cemeteries with less they 500 burials until we can resolve some paging issues. Ideally the initial phase will be available with next week's update.

Numerous updates have been posted to the Burials Collection . The majority of the updates are to Brookside Cemetery, Town of Watertown. Burial updates over the next several weeks are designed to allow for the inclusion of cemetery sections for those cemeteries where we've been able to identify the section in which the burial resides.

July 20
In conjunction with a visit to Fairview Cemetery, Town of Harrisburg, we visited three cemeteries along Route 12 between Watertown and Lowville. Based on those visits the following cemeteries have been added to the Cemetery Collection and the Burial Collection has been updated.

Fairview Cemetery (aka St Mary's Cemetery), Copenhagen, Town of Denmark, Lewis County
This cemetery has been added to the Cemetery Collection. Unfortunately because of time constraints, this cemetery was not fully inventoried. Only a few of the older stones were photographed. This cemetery is impeccably maintained and stones are in excellent condition and fully readable. Based on available information, it was established in the 1902-1904 timeframe.

Gallup Cemetery, Town of Harrisburg, Lewis County
This cemetery has been added to the Cemetery Collection. The photographic inventory of this fairly small cemetery is approximately 90% complete. A return trip is planned to work on those stones that are in extremely bad condition. Overall most of the stones were readable and 122 burials were identified spanning the 1810-1944 timeframe. It appears that this cemetery is only receiving minimal care and numerous stones are in danger of being lost. The results of this visit have been added to the Burial Collection.

In conjunction with the above visits, South Rutland Cemetery, Town of Rutland, Jefferson County was visited. The majority of the older stones have now been photographed and updates to burials have been posted.

Lakeside Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield, Jefferson County is being inventoried in support of the Lakeside Cemetery Association. We are assisting them with the development of a full site map, which should be complete by the end of summer. Towards that end Section K, the newest section, has been fully inventoried and updates posted.

The inventory of Sulphur Springs Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield and Hillside Champion (aka Champion Hillside) continues and minor updates to the Burial Collection has been posted. Full inventories of these two cemeteries should be complete by the end of the summer.

Because of the fantastic support we've received from many of the cemetery associations, we will be adding grave location information to the Burial Collection. Initially this will only include section identifiers; however as we develop lot information, that will be included as well.

Grave Stone Preservation - Part I of this three part series has been added to the site. This initial article deals with those things not to do in regards to reading and cleaning stones.

July 13
Fairview Cemetery, Lewis County has been added to both Cemetery Descriptions and the Burial Collection. This cemetery lies on one of the historical migration routs from the Utica/Rome area to Jefferson County and is maintained by the Fairview Cemetery Association, 5500 Jackson St., Lowville, NY 13367. The cemetery occupies between 1.5 and 2 acres and briefly, from 1916 until 1932, was known as Greenwood Cemetery. Based on the in-depth inventory conducted by the Vary Family Group, Fairview Cemetery contains in excess of 220 burials annotated on 110 stones. The earliest noted burial was 1830 and the most recent was in 2000. Photos of individual stones are available from Joanne Vary Schwandes [jschwandes (at) hotmail.com].  Noteworthy is that the Vary Family will hold their 90th Annual Family Reunion in Lowville on the 19th and 20th of July.

Updates to burials in Hillside Champion Cemetery, Town of Champion, Jefferson County have been posted. This is one of three cemeteries, the other two being Sulphur Springs Cemetery and Lakeside Cemetery, that we are currently involved in fully inventorying. We currently have recorded over 500 burials in Hillside Cemetery whose inscriptions have been photographed.

The surname search that was initially planned for the site is currently on hold and has been removed from the menu. Work continues on this feature and we hope to have it available by the end of July.

July 6
The majority of this week's updates center on our ongoing effort to fully inventory cemeteries. We were extremely surprised at the declining condition of the Church Street Cemetery, Town of Alexandria. We observed newly broken stones, no repair to previously damaged stones, and a tree limb down over a group of stones. Numerous stones in this cemetery are in serious danger of being lost.

The following cemeteries were visited during the last week and updates to burials have been posted based on photo review:

Grove Cemetery (aka Orleans Cemetery), Town of Orleans - partial inventory
Church Street Cemetery,  Town of Alexandria - fully inventoried - photo review complete
Sulphur Springs Cemetery, Town of Hounsfield - partial inventory - inventory is now about 25% complete
Hillside Cemetery (aka Champion Hillside), Town of Champion - partial inventory - inventory is now about 30% complete

The following collections have also been updated:
Deaths Collection: New additions posted mainly from the period 1850 - 1930
Marriage Collection: New additions and details posted generally covering the period 1840 - 1900