The first cemetery I ever recorded was in Perry County. I did almost nothing with Perry County while I was CC of Madison Co. TNGenWeb, so I spend some of last week's un-August weather there. In some ways I was the most recent in a line of people who recorded Madison Co. cemeteries. The late William B. Elam of Medina recorded many Carroll, Gibson, and Madison Co. cemeteries in the 1960s and early 1970s. Robert and Wilma Nolan were recording cemeteries in the 1970s, as were Floyd and Helen Johnson. These two couples did many of the cemeteries which appeared in the north and south cemetery books. Jonathan K. T. Smith worked in the 1990s. He recorded all the black cemeteries and did an update of the active ones. For the north and south cemetery books he did many of the obscure cemeteries and a couple of large cemeteries others backed out of or did not want to do -- Calvary and Brown's. Then there was me 2001-2004. I did the recommended three-year updates of active black cemeteries, cemeteries where Rushings are buried, and some of the larger cemeteries which I thought were needed online -- Big Springs, Antioch, Maple Springs, Providence. Now it is time for another cemetery person to emerge. The north and south cemetery books are adequate for old inactive cemeteries. Here is what is needed most. Highland Memorial is the cemetery most people may need information from but this will be addressed by the cemetery book currently being compiled by the Mid-West Tennessee Genealogical Society. It will records-based and not marker-based, much like the Hollywood book and its update. Ridgecrest is a large Jackson cemetery recorded in the mid-1980s. Ridgecrest is near the largest size that a single person or a couple could do, but it is doable. It would be like doing two Lexington cemeteries or four Brown's. I actually thought about doing it but with me the commute was the problem. It cannot be done by someone who lives in Parsons. Active black cemeteries should be updated at an interval no longer than three years and white cemeteries should be updated at an interval no longer than five years. This gives a chance to record temporary markers which are never replaced by permanent markers. Any active cemetery in the north and south cemetery books not since updated is in need of an update. Aside from the large Jackson cemeteries, Bethel is the cemetery most needed online. This cemetery is in Gibson Co., west of Windy City, just beyond the county line. The associated church is in Madison County. Though many Gibson Co. cemeteries are online, Bethel is not. Elsewhere in the northern half of the county, Calvary (1992) and Davidson Yard (1995) are online but dated. In the south, cemeteries most in need of being updated and placed online are East Laurel and the white Clover Creek. Online but now five years old is Ebenezer Cemetery in Malesus, recorded in April 1999. David

One person I thought of just as I clicked the SEND button was Charlotte Hollowell. She has done several Madison Co. cemeteries, though the primary focus of her cemetery research is Hardeman Co. and western Chester Co. David