The Grayson County, Virginia Heritage Foundation has published “Those Who Sleep Here: Grayson County, Virginia Cemeteries”, a three-volume set of books covering over 500 cemeteries in Grayson County.  Each cemetery has a location description and a listing of all identified burials. The name, birth date, death date, and comments as available are included for each burial. Comments often include information such as spouse, parents, and military service. A key feature of these volumes is an alphabetical index to the over 25,000 names listed in the cemeteries. Also included are maps showing the general locations of all cemeteries.

Efforts to gather and document information about Grayson County cemeteries began over thirty years ago. The Appalachian Power Company planned a dam on the New River that would put many of the cemeteries of the county under water, so the local DAR members executed a project of documenting as much as possible of the old cemeteries affected by the dam plans. The proposed dam was thwarted when the New River in North Carolina was declared a Wild and Scenic River. The DAR cemetery survey data was put on index cards and placed in the Grayson County Public Library in Independence.

Then in the early 1990s a local resident, Paul Herndon, started a second cemetery project with the intention of publishing his collection of information in book form, and many local residents assisted him in this project. He did obtain copies of the DAR surveys as a part of this effort. Unfortunately, Mr. Herndon was not able to complete this project.

In 2002 Jeff Weaver moved back to the area. He and a few others interested in local history were discussing possibilities of undertaking some project to help local researchers, and the third cemetery project was born. Jeff provided space on his web site, http://www.NewRiverNotes.com, on which to store the cemetery data and make it available to researchers. Today the “cemetery hoppers” have compiled more than five hundred cemetery listings on Jeff’s web site and now we are pleased to be able to make this data available in book form.

Many “cemetery hoppers” participated in this third effort; central to the group were Jeff Weaver, Buford Wilson, Susan Taylor Woodson, and Rich and Ginger Ballard.  Paul Herndon shared his collection of data with the group and Barb Norvell spent many hours merging that data into the New River Notes pages. Bette Nelson and many others contributed to the family notes started by Mr. Herndon.

We also were assisted by Paul Anderson.  Paul pulled together information from USGS surveys and other sources and generated coordinate data and maps that helped us find many of the cemeteries.

Gil Wetmore and Buford Wilson assisted Rich and Ginger Ballard in editing this collection.

These three volumes are the product of the efforts of those identified above, the surveyors identified in the listings, and many others who provided more cemetery listings and additional family data. We are grateful to each and every one of them. The cemeteries within the present-day city limits of Galax are documented in “Those Who Sleep Here: Galax, Virginia Cemeteries” (2008) and are not duplicated within these volumes.

These cemetery books and other books of interest to those researching their Grayson County families are for sale at the Grayson County, Virginia Heritage Foundation office in the Guynn Shopping Center Mini Mall in Independence. Office hours are 10 AM to 4 PM Thursday and Friday. You are invited to visit the office to purchase these books or to use the resources in the office to research your family history. The books can also be purchased in our store. The three-volume set is available in soft cover for $100 and in hard cover for $150.  Current and new members of the Grayson County, Virginia Heritage Foundation get a $10 discount.