Our Historic Cemetery

https://christchurchmiddlesex.thediocese.net/Historic-Cemetery/#:~:text=Hundreds%20of%20funeral%20services,the%C2%A0Interment%20Records.

The Christ Church cemetery is a journey through America's earliest times.

Hundreds of funeral services have been conducted at Christ Church since it was consecrated in 1666.   Many early burials were at outlying chapels or in private cemeteries at homes and plantations.  Only a few of the markers were durable enough to survive the ravages of time.

Our separate article, Founders and Patriots, provides information on this important group of area colonials. These outstanding men are memorialized in a plaque mounted on the cemetery wall.

There were no burials in the 40 year period 1815 to 1855, because the connection to England was broken during the American Revolution.  Many clergy retreated to England, however, a majority remained and sided with the patriots.

Christ Church, Middlesex, was reconsecrated by American bishops in the mid-19th century.  At that time, customs were rapidly changing in many ways, and burials in church cemeteries became universally popular.  Graves were marked with durable materials, and we now have records from that era carved in stone or cast in metal.

In the 20th century, members of the Christ Church congregation compiled the carved and cast records in handwritten notebooks. Then in the 21st century, the hand written records were digitzed, compiled and organized in a computer-based spreadsheet named Database. This is stored in the "internet cloud" where it is backed up and also available for viewing by anyone with access to the internet at the link: About Interment Records.

Photographs of markers are also stored in albums stored in the "cloud."  Links to the main album are conveniently placed in the Interment Records.

Our Cemetery Committee and parish office staff maintain the interment records of both the historic and the newer areas of our cemetery. 

Because most inquiries are regarding the older gravesites which are within the cemetery wall, those are the ones included in our Interment Records Database.  Click here for that database: 

Christ_Church_Old_Cemetery_Document_Last_Name_7-17-24.pdf

Download PDF • 90KB

Our cemetery is the final repose of well known historic personalities as well as those who lived and worked less-public lives. All, in their own way, have woven the fabric that is Virginia and America.

One of the most accurate and complete resources is Christ Church’s registry of marriages, baptisms and burial services, especially the edited version by Craig M. Kilby - Christ Church Parish Register, Middlesex County, Virginia, 1651-1821: An Interpretive Reconstruction, New Papyrus Publishing, Athens, GA, 2014.  Christ Church has a copy of the book and will happily provide you access by appointment.  You may also purchase the book online through various vendors. 

Unfortunately, very few early burials are mapped in the Christ Church graveyard.  Most of the pre-1840 graves are now unknown.  However, researchers seem to think they are all there.  We know that over the years the church lost track of various burials that were later rediscovered during repairs and renovations.