The Monroe County Veteran's Service Agency kept registers of veteran's graves in order to locate graves and be able to place flags on the veteran's grave. Each book (picture on right) is divided by cemetery and contain many small forms with data on each veteran burial. The forms varied through the years with earlier forms being larger and having sections for more data. There is varying amounts of data on the veteran on these forms. See representative forms at the bottom of this pages. Some forms only have death date while others include much more data. It is not known where the information was obtained but occasional references are made to enlistment and discharge papers.
It appears that the Veteran's Service Agency began collecting data in 1937. The job of keeping the books updated appears to be the job of a person in each Town as the date the updates were stopped varies from one Town to another. Some Towns are not updated after the early 1980s while other Towns continue being updated until 1992. It is not known why the Veteran's Service Agency stopped the updates.
A few books were given to either Town Historians or Veteran's organizations in the Towns. The rest of the books were going to be destroyed. At the last minute they were rescued by a Town Historian who has leant them out to have the data added to this web site. There are approximately 130 books available so it may take 5 to 7 years to complete the project.
The books also include some maps of cemeteries. Often these are the only maps available of cemeteries. The maps usually contain dots connected by red lines which were used to help the person putting flags on graves to locate the veteran's grave. The maps were drawn in the 1950s and often the cemeteries have been expanded since the maps were drawn.
Go to GenWeb of Monroe Co. page.
© Richard T. Halsey, 2001