Initiated in November 1999, the Davidson County Cemetery Survey includes the records of Nashville and Davidson County’s historical burial sites. Led by the Nashville Town Committee of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Tennessee, the survey involved over 200 volunteers who recorded tombstone inscriptions in over 400 cemeteries. The initial survey project also involved the Metropolitan Government Archives, the Nashville Room of the Nashville Public Library, Historic Nashville, Inc., and former State Archaeologist Nick Fielder. The Metropolitan Historical Commission (MHC) currently maintains records on over 650 cemeteries which contain important information about individuals, families, churches, and communities who shaped Nashville’s rich history.
With funding from the Tennessee Historical Commission, in 2021 the Metro Historical Commission initiated a multi-phase grant project that will update these survey records and create the first county-level cemetery preservation plan in Tennessee. This project will not include any physical restoration work, but will lay the foundation for later, more targeted preservation work at individual sites. Goals of this project include surveying previously undocumented sites, completing a conditions assessment for each site, providing recommendations for stabilization and repair, creating a priority list of endangered sites, and gathering more precise site boundaries using GPS. Learn more about the goals of this grant work and project findings on our Grants and Special Projects page.
To view the Davidson County Cemetery Survey online, please visit the Davidson County Cemetery Survey on the Nashville Open Data Portal. Genealogical information is available to the public via the Metro Archives and Nashville Room's collections.
Please call the Metropolitan Historical Commission at 615-862-7970 with any questions or concerns about Davidson County’s cemeteries.
Cemetery Preservation - Developers and Property Owners
Guidelines for Working with Davidson County's Historical Cemeteries
Tennessee State Laws Concerning Cemeteries
- Removal of vegetation and debris (Boy Scout Law)
- Historic Cemeteries in the State of Tennessee: General information, Laws, and Guidelines
- Tennessee Cemetery and Burial Site Laws
- Hearing and decree of escheat (reversion of property to the “state” when there is no owner or heir), Tennessee Code Annotated § 46-2-105
Metropolitan Government Laws Concerning Cemeteries
Cemeteries owned by the Metropolitan Government (Ordinance No. BL2003-96)
Resources for Cleaning, Repair & Study
- Caring for Davidson County’s Cemeteries
- How to Clean a Stone Grave Marker (Video)
- Gravestone Cleaning (Video)
- How to Read the Unreadable Gravestone (Video)
- How to Reset a Stone Grave Marker (Video)
- Lifting and Hoisting Cemetery Monuments (Video)
- Chicora Foundation, Inc. Provides free articles on maintenance and repair as well as affordable publications on topics such as African-American cemeteries and iconography
- National Preservation Institute Provides seminars on preservation and documentation of historic cemeteries
- The Association of Gravestone Studies Provides information on preservation and conservation of gravestones, including a slide show illustrating step-by-step instructions for how to reset a fallen stone
- State of Tennessee’s Division of Archaeology
- Tennessee Genealogical Society
- Metropolitan Government Archives
- Tennessee Historical Commission Cemetery Preservation Program