May They Rest in Peace

The York County History Center has developed a digital inventory of 365 burial sites within York County. Existing History Center records of burial sites were converted to a digital database.

The sites are classified into the following categories within the database:

• African American Cemetery - Cemetery or burial ground explicitly created by African Americans or for African Americans.
• Burial Ground - Land where deceased people have been buried. Usually smaller and less formal than a cemetery, they are specifically designated.
• Burial Plot - Similar to a burial ground except being much smaller, located primarily on private property, and typically containing the graves of related individuals with no official specific designation.
• Cemetery - An area officially designated as a cemetery and often, but not in every instance, associated with a religious, military, or other type of facility, organization, or association.
• Memorial Garden - Area planted to honor people who have passed away. Usually, it includes trees, flowers, grasses, and other objects. The size of these gardens typically varies.

Latitude and longitude coordinates for each site were obtained from several sources including cemetery and grave site web sites and other public data sources. Using these coordinates, the digital database was transformed into a geospatial database so that the various digital maps inserted into this story map may provide intuitive and interactive access to the location and basic characteristics of each site.

To improve the efficency of the process of locating individual sites through interactive maps the County area is organized into nine (9) geographic regions. Below is a summary of these regions.

• The North Region of York County includes the Townships of Fairview, Monaghan and Newberry and the Boroughs of Goldsboro and Lewisberry.

• The Northeast Region of York County includes the Townships of Conewago, East Manchester, and Manchester and the Borough of Manchester.

• The East Region of York County includes the Townships of Chanceford, Hellam, Lower Windsor, and Windsor and the Boroughs of East Prospect, Hallam, Red Lion, Wrightsville, and Yorkana.

• The Southeast Region of York County includes the Townships of Fawn, Lower Chanceford, and Peach Bottom and the Boroughs of Delta and Fawn Grove.

• The South Region of York County includes the Townships of East Hopewell, Hopewell, North Hopewell, Shrewsbury, and Springfield and the Boroughs of Glen Rock, Railroad, New Freedom, Shrewsbury, and Stewartstown.

• The Southwest Region of York County includes the Townships of Codorus, Manheim, Penn, and West Manheim and the Boroughs of Hanover and Jefferson.

• The West Region of York County includes the Townships of Heidelberg, Jackson, North Codorus, and Paradise and the Boroughs of New Salem, Seven Valleys, and Spring Grove.

• The Northwest Region of York County includes the Townships of Carroll, Dover, Franklin, Warrington, and Washington and the Boroughs of Dillsburg and Dover.

• The Central Region of York County includes the Townships of Spring Garden, Springettsbury, and West Manchester, the City of York, and the Boroughs of Dallastown, North York, West York, and Yoe.

The static map below shows the locations of all 365 burial sites within the inventory. The sites are color coded by category and can be visualized within the boundary of a region.

The chart below shows the number of sites in the database within each category.

This virtual exhibit includes interactive tools for searching and finding sites and accessing data and other information about the sites. These include a web mapping application and a series of interactive maps. The application and the maps provide two intuitive and interactive tools for users who wish to explore the contents of the inventory and database of cemeteries and other burial sites located in York County, Pennsylvania.

The web mapping application provides the ability to query the database, visualize the results in a web map, and interact with map symbols to view data and information through a popup window. The interactive maps allow the user to browse web maps of various categories and regional locations of sites, interact with map symbols and view data and also information through a popup window.

Select the appropriate user tool by clicking one of the buttons below.

Additional information for the cemeteries and other burial sites in York County, Pennsylvania is available in hard-copy format within the archives at the  York County History Center in York, Pennsylvania 

The websites below provide a wealth of additional information and data resources for the cemeteries and other burial sites located in York County, Pennsylvania.