Cuyahoga West Chapter, OGS

Cuyahoga West Chapter

of The Ohio Genealogical Society

Serving Western Cuyahoga County and the Cleveland, Ohio area

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Cuyahoga West Revises Database of 1914-1938, Cuyahoga Co. "Soldiers Burial Record"


The Cuyahoga County Archives in Cleveland, Ohio houses an old ledger called Soldiers Burial Record, chronologically listing the names of veterans, widows of veterans, and some mothers of veterans, for whom Cuyahoga County paid part of their burial costs during 1914-1938.  These were veterans of the Civil War, Spanish-American War or World War I.  The name of the deceased, the cemetery, the date and usually the amount of the payment, as well as the undertaker and the committee members who approved the payment are given.  This date was usually 2 to 6 months after date of death.  Most burials were in Cuyahoga County, but many payments were made for burials out of the county and state, an important genealogical clue.   This ledger refers back to a set of individually indexed volumes called, Record of Committee on Burial of Ex-Union  Soldiers.  Each covers about a twelve-month period of the applications with approval or rejection of the ward committeemen.  The veteran's service and unit are given here, as well as actual date of death and cemetery.

Lois Ippolito, former newsletter editor of this chapter, compiled an index to this material in 1993 and it was published in the Cuyahoga West TRACER in 1993-1994.  The latter part of this was after Lois died in Nov. 1993.  The supposed remaining names were published in December 1993 and March 1994.  A chance discovery in 2005 revealed that over 1,000 names were not printed at that time!

Jeanne Workman has completed a revision of this index, combining the four parts, adding in the missed names and making numerous corrections by checking the ledger and the additional volumes.  The printed index totals 30 pages with a new introduction.  Included in this index are: Name/ledger page, Date of payment, Cemetery or other burial location.

Index to Soldiers Burial Record 1914-1938
Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Includes Widows, some Mothers

     Diligence has been spent in ascertaining the spelling of names written in this ledger, but these names had already been copied several times before our own interpretation and some errors surely still exist. Spelling often changed between the Record of Committee volumes and the Soldiers Burial Record. Information found enclosed in brackets [ ], indicates that it was missing in the ledger, but found elsewhere by the reviser. In some cases dual entries were made with two varied spellings.
     The columns are as follows:   Name and ledger page number;   Date of Payment;  Cemetery or other location of burial.

A researcher's next step might be to consult the Cleveland Necrology File of the Cleveland Public Library, www.cpl.org for a possible paid death notice. 

Additional information might also be obtained from the Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office website at http://recorder.cuyahogacounty.us/veterandefault.aspx.  Veterans' graves in Ohio are/were registered at the County Recorder's office, and an ongoing project in Cuyahoga County in conjunction with the Memorial Day Association of Greater Cleveland has added to these records from other sources.  Their registry covers veterans from all wars.

                                  Copyright ©2011, Cuyahoga West Chapter, OGS   -   Page last updated on 12/5/2011.