USGenWeb Genealogical Site for the Town of

	Rochester  Massachusetts

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Rochester Cemetery Information, Photos and Transcriptions

     Collecting information about the cemeteries of Rochester is an ongoing effort, and this page will be revised as needed. If you have cemetery information or gravestone transcriptions that you would like to share please send me email.

     Where I have been able to determine it, the records repository for a cemetery is indicated. In the entries for the individual cemeteries, if one has its own web site or a portion of a web site the cemetery name provides a link to that site. When the location of a cemetery is known there are links to street and topographic maps to help you find it, as well as notes about the cemetery and a brief description of its location. Below these paragraphs is a locator map of the town showing the cemetery locations. Any gravestone transcriptions online also have links. At the bottom of the page is a seperate section listing all online and published gravestone transcriptions that I have found for these cemeteries.

     When a cemetery has had more than one name during its history the first name listed is the one by which it is usually known today, and alternative names are listed in square brackets. In some cases a cemetery has been abandoned, its burials have been removed to another cemetery, or its location has been lost. In those cases the name indicates that it is a cemetery site, meaning that no gravestones are to be found there. The year in parenthesis next to a cemetery name is my best estimate of the year in which that cemetery was established. In some cases the year is mentioned in town records, a town history or some other source. In other cases it is the year of the oldest gravestone for which I have found a record.

     A note on the Topographic Maps: In the past I have used links to online map servers to display topographic maps. That allowed visitors to zoom and pan those maps. However, changes to those online map servers have necessitated occasional revisions to my many cemetery pages, and on more than one occasion I have had to change the server used. This has meant a great deal of work as I have about fifty cemetery pages online or under construction. A change to the server which I have most recently used has prompted be to abandon the use of topographic map servers and to replace them with images of scanned maps. While this may not be quite as satisfactory to visitors my increasing genealogical work load has necessitated it.

Ashley Cemetery (1788)
North Ave., Rochester, MA
Abbreviated in Vital Records of Rochester as G.R.9.
MACRIS designation ROC.809

Photograph used with the permission of eobfindagrave (#46779688) of Find A Grave
A high-resolution version of this photo (200k) is available.

Street Map
Topographic Map

Transcriptions in Thatcher,
as well as NEHGS Manuscript MS70/ROC/10
Abstracts in Rochester Historic Survey
Abstracts at Find A Grave

Location:   South side of North Ave. near Freetown line.

Note:   Contains about 35 stones from 1788 to 1858. Maintained by the town of Rochester.

Location:   In woods west of Featherbed Ln. behind no. 135.

Note:   Contains about 12 stones from 1838 to 1914.

Location:   In woods in Rochester Centre - exact location unknown.

Note:   Grave of Elizabeth Atwood, 1828.

Location:   On private property, about 225 feet from the road in the woods behind 69 Mattapoisett Rd., on the west side of Mattapoisett north of the Mattapoisett town line.

Note:   Two stones, Priscilla Ellis, 1840, and Ebenezer Ellis, 1845.

Location:   Between Dexter Ln. and New Bedford Rd.

Note:   Contains about 1,400 stones, 1715 to date.

Location:   West side of Hillside Rd. south of High St.

Note:   Contains about 114 stones from 1824 to date.

Location:   North side of North Ave. east of Maxim Rd.

Note:   Contains about 230 stones from 1810 to date.

Location:   East side of Braley Hill Rd. south of Taber Ln.

Note:   Contains about 30 stones from 1758 to 1857.

Location:   On private property west of the end of Perry Ln. in woods.

Note:   Contains about 10 stones from 1854 to 1920.

Location:   Off of North Ave., behind parking lot of Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School.

Note:   Contains 7 stones from 1797 to 1843.

Location:   Between Cushman Rd. and Jason's Ln., in woods behind orchard.

Note:   Grave of Sarah Howse, 1791, which also notes the 1747 death of her husband Jeremiah.

Location:   West side of Pine St. north of Hartley Rd.

Note:   Contains about 265 stones from 1843 to date.

Location:   West side of Walnut Plain Rd. south of Alley Rd.

Note:   Contains about 230 stones from 1810 to date.

Location:   West side of County Rd. next to East Rochester Congregational Church, across from Pierceville Rd.

Note:   Contains about 150 stones from 1828 to date.

The Rochester Historical Society and the Rochester Genealogy Club have abstracted the gravestones from two Rochester cemeteries, and those transcriptions are online:

• Hillside Cemetery in rich text format or text file
• Woodside Cemetery in rich text format or text file

Rochester Community-Wide Historic and Architectural Survey 1997-1998 (Rochester, MA: Rochester Historical Commission, 1998) — Volume 6 (Cemeteries) can be viewed or downloaded in PDF format from the SAILS Library Network Community Treasury. Contents include:

• Ashley Cemetery — Photographs, description, map and gravestone abstracts.
• Braley Family Cemetery — Description and gravestone abstracts.
• Ellis Family Burying Ground — Photographs, description and gravestone transcriptions.
• First Parish Cemetery — Photographs, description and gravestone abstracts.
• Hillside Cemetery [East Rochester Cemetery] — Photographs, description, maps and gravestone abstracts.
• North Rochester Cemetery [Central Cemetery] — Photographs and description.
• Old Parish Cemetery — Photographs, description and gravestone abstracts.
• Perry Family Cemetery — Photographs, description and gravestone abstracts.
• Pierce Family Cemetery — Photographs, description, map and transcriptions.
• Sarah Howse Grave — Photograph, description and transcription.
• Sherman Cemetery — Photographs and description.
• Union Cemetery — Photographs, description, maps and gravestone abstracts.
• Woodside Cemetery [Pierceville Cemetery] — Photographs, description and gravestone abstracts.

Sherman Cemetery is the subject of a superb PDF file that can be viewed or downloaded from the SAILS Library Network Community Treasury. It includes detailed plans, numerous photographs of stones and gravestone abstracts.

Charles Milton Thatcher, Old Cemeteries of Southeastern Massachusetts (Middleborough, MA: Middleborough Public Library, 1995). Contains over 16,000 transcriptions of gravestones up to the mid-1800s, from 214 cemeteries located in 28 Plymouth and Bristol County towns. Although this is still a useful resource, many transcription errors have been discovered, so use Thatcher with care and check it against the actual gravestones or other transcriptions.

John S. Ryder, Cemetery Inscriptions, Rochester Centre, Massachusetts — Manuscript in the library of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, D.C.

Special Note: — The following NEHGS manuscripts are cited as containing Rochester cemetery transcriptions in David Allen Lambert, A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries (Boston: NEHGS, 2002). These works are not yet in the NEHGS online catalog, so I am awaiting further information in order to identify them.

MS70/ROC/10, Mss/SG/LIN/5/18