Lesson Introduction: The Importance of Cemeteries for Researching Veterans

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Cemeteries Offer Context

Understanding the history of a cemetery can give us powerful clues about the people buried there and the circumstances of their deaths. This is especially true for Veterans who may or may not have been able to make an active choice about where they would be interred.

Where Veterans Are Buried

Early history: The Civil War was a driving force in the creation of national cemeteries for soldiers and Veterans. Subsequent conflicts, especially World War I, expanded the need for burial spaces and the scope of federal responsibilities to Veterans. In the 1930s, the Army transferred the stewardship of many of the major Civil War–era cemeteries to the National Park Service.

Detail from the print Gettysburg Battle-field by Jonathan Bachelder, published by Endicott & Co., New York, 1863. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC10018)

Color print with a panaromic view of the Gettysburg Battlefield
View of text in the National Cemeteries Act.

Landmark Legislation

A New Federal Agency: In 1973, the National Cemeteries Act established “within the Veterans’ Administration a National Cemetery System.” Today the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) directly cares for 155 national cemeteries and provides funding for state and tribal cemeteries. It also maintains online resources for learning about those cemeteries and locating interred Veterans.

Detail of a page from the National Cemeteries Act, June 18, 1973. Publ. L. No. 93-43, 87 Stat. 75 (1973). (Congress.gov)

Learning Goals

By the end of this lesson, you will know where to find the history of a National Cemetery Administration (NCA) cemetery. You will understand how that history can help explain why a Veteran might have been buried there.

Lessons in this Section

  • How to Locate a Cemetery
  • The History of an NCA Cemetery
  • Research Challenge: Cemetery History