Forwarded from the Iowa Listing. A great project which needs a lot of help. Sincerely, Mike Peterson ----------------------------------- > During the Depression (mid to late 1930s) the government started the Work > Progress Administration or WPA. This allowed people the chance to work and be > productive during a time when jobs were scarce. When my grandfather and > uncles worked for the WPA, they fixed roads in Monroe Co., IA. WPA workers in > Clinton Co., IA were responsible for building the beautiful Eagle Point Park. > Other workers wrote county histories or interviewed older members of the > community. In the case of many counties, one of the things the WPA was > responsible for was collecting and recording the information on the tombstones in the > local cemeteries. > We are on a mission to transcribe those records. It must be noted that they > may not have actually gone to the cemetery. They may have collected info > from death record books at the courthouse or from newspaper obituaries. > Combined with the facts that these were originally typed on a manual typewriter and > these pages have been copied possibly hundreds of times in the past 60+ > years, there are bound to be errors and some of the pages are difficult to read. > Still, the WPA cemetery records remain an invaluable resource for > researchers. > Various sources were used. Some cemeteries were not recorded. Some listed > have incorrect names or are not in the county. Some burials, especially those > of young children, were omitted. Some people are NOT buried in the locations > indicated. Accuracy leaves something to be desired! However, for some of our > ancestors this may be the only record of their death. Thus, we present this > material to you, with some reservations, exactly as originally recorded, > blemishes and all. Check other sources if you can, and treat this data as a "lead" > that needs further verification. > Bad News/Good News: Only 71 of Iowa's 99 counties have WPA cemetery > information. We have copies of all the WPA transcripts in the form of pdf files and > are looking for volunteers to help transcribe this info to be compiled in a > statewide soundex-searchable database for the IAGenWeb Project as well as > individual county files housed here at the Archives. Once all 71 counties are > transcribed, we anticipate as many as 200,000 WPA burial records on line for > free access by researchers. All that is needed is that you be able to type up > the info into an Excel file and email the file back to me. For an idea of > how this will look and work when it is done, please visit the Van Buren > county's WPA database at _http://www.rootsweb.com/~iavanbur/WPA_Search.htm_ > (http://www.rootsweb.com/~iavanbur/WPA_Search.htm) > If you would like to help, please email me at _IAGWArchives@aol.com_ > (mailto:IAGWArchives@aol.com?subject=WPA%20Records) . > > Nettie Mae Lucas, Coordinator > Iowa USGenWeb Archives Project: > _http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ia/iafiles.htm_ > (http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ia/iafiles.htm) > > ______________________________