At long last, I am finishing up collecting and record the cemeteries In Trigg County for the state Historical Society. It has been an interesting experience, and I must admit that I enjoy the actual field work - hunting and recording the cemeteries, especially the small, all-but-lost ones -than sitting before a typewriter and putting them into book form.

Trigg County has been an especially difficult county to record because of its State of turmoil for the last 40 years. A large portion of its land has been taken over by various governmental groups, which resulted in a high proportion of Its cemeteries being relocated. First, Fort Campbell Military Reservation took some 22,000 acres for the Army base, which meant that about two dozen cemeteries are no longer accessible, and another dozen or so were moved to a relocation cemetery outside of Trigg County.

Then the Impoundment of Kentucky Lake covered many cemeteries, cut off the access to others, and further complicated the tracing of ancestors. This happened shortly after Fort Campbell was constructed in 1942. For almost twenty years, the county was left alone, until the Land Between the Lakes area was taken over in 1965. At this time, the people were moved out of the area. Not much actual relocation of cemeteries was done at that time, but the cemeteries had specific boundaries set on them, with limitations on the amount of future burials which could be done. Many of these very old cemeteries were accessible only by old county roads which have since then been relegated to nature trails.

About the same time, the Lake Barkley project meant that even more family burial places had to be moved. All of these relocation projects were done with worthwhile purposes behind them, and were handled with as much propriety as was possible. But the fact still remains that all this moving has made matters very difficult for researchers and family genealogists. The records of these moves are In various places, making the tracing of ancestors even more difficult, especially for family members who might not even know where to start looking. Many of the TVA records are now located In Chattenooga, although the Land Between the Lakes main headquarters keeps an updated record of burials In their areas. The men at Fort Campbell evidently made a valiant effort to record all the graves as they were being moved, but there were natural mistakes in spelling of family names, etc. And since the reservation covers four counties of Kentucky and Tennessee, one would have to be very familiar with the area In order to know which cemetery came from what county.

But after much hiking and crawling through berry bushes, and searching old records, and talking to old timers, at last I believe I have about as accurate a record of the cemeteries of that county as can be expected, under the circumstances. As is usually the case, there are a few cemeteries which persist in staying hidden - some of which I have gotten records of and others merely hints that they do indeed exist. I have met and been helped by many kind people who were interested in seeing the old settlers of the county preserved for future generations, and I appreciate all their help.

The book should be ready for sale in a few months, and will be priced at $15. If anyone wants to put in advance orders, I will begin accepting them at any time. And when it is done, then I will go back to finishing up the cemeteries in Calloway County, which is about half done. Then I'm going on vacation - in 1999.

Return to the Index of Judy Maupin's Genealogical ancedotes, stories and family notes.