Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection open for research

Use Restrictions

No physical characteristics affect use of this material.

Preferred Citation

Loudoun County, VA Cemetery Collection (M 017), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Acquisition Information

Aurelia Jewell; Committee on Old Cemeteries; Thomas Balch Library Cemetery Committee

Alternative Form Available

Cemeteries of Loudoun County, Virginia: Copied by Mrs. Walter Towner Jewell (V REF 929.3 JEW); Loudoun County, Virginia Cemeteries: A Preliminary Index (V REF 929.50975528)

Accruals

2005.0112, 2005.0113

Processing Information

Processed by Emily Hershman, 8 August 2007.

This collection is open; there may be additional entries.

Historical Information

The Loudoun County Cemetery Collection project was initiated by Aurelia McCormick Jewell, who from approximately 1945 to 1950 made detailed listings of the cemeteries throughout the county. Rather than being listed alphabetically, Mrs. Jewell's data was sorted according to the location of each grave in individual cemeteries.

After Joint Resolution 177 by the 1989 Virginia General Assembly, an ordinance recognizing the significance and vulnerability of small Virginia cemeteries to development, the Preservation Society of Loudoun County resumed the cemetery project. A "Committee on Old Cemeteries," consisting of Alvin Titus, Wynne Saffer, David Via, Louis Jett, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Miner, and Alice Calhoun, was created to examine the small cemeteries throughout the county and determine their condition and the necessity for state action. The data compiled by this committee may often contain numerical measurements of graves as well as the number and condition of graves in a cemetery, but do not all contain names and birth and death dates.

In 1995 Thomas Balch Library sponsored a project to map, identify, photograph, and transcribe gravestone inscriptions in Loudoun cemeteries. A committee was created that consisted of Jeff Ball, Ned Douglass, Mary Fishback, Marty Hiatt, David Via, and Wynne Saffer as chairman for that purpose. The following year (1996), the committee published a list of known cemeteries in Loudoun County. The Committee has not been disbanded but is no longer active.

Scope and Content

The Loudoun County Cemetery Collection is comprised of four boxes and over one hundred folders. Cemeteries throughout the county are alphabetically listed, and each folder is headed according to the name of the cemetery and its location in the collection. Information in the folders ranges from single page lists to extensive indexes.

Folders in the cemetery collection include known information about cemeteries in places such as Hamilton, Middleburg, Purcellville, Leesburg, and other locations throughout the county. Some contain pictures of individual gravesites, names, birth and death dates on gravestones, and locations of the cemeteries. The folders are comprised of the combined information from Aurelia Jewell's and the "Committee on Old Cemeteries" data. The six notebooks from Thomas Balch Library Cemetery Committee Records of Loudoun County, VA (V REF 929.50975528) are also included in this collection. The notebooks consist of state cemetery questionnaires, photographs of individual graves, maps of each cemetery, and indexes of all gravestone inscriptions. A separate index from this project can also be used for further research.

The Cemetery Collection records are the only items in this collection.

Related Material

Preservation Society of Loudoun County, Cemetery Records (M 006/OMB 001)

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Bibliography

Wynne Saffer, interview with Emily Rebecca Hershman, 8 August 2007

Loudoun County, VA Cemetery Collection (M 017), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA

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Other Finding Aid

Loudoun County Cemetery Database, http://www.leesburgva.org/services/library/cemetery/default.aspx, uncatalogued Loudoun Cemetery Directory and Location Map Guide (2002 edition) located in open stacks.

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