In the absence of systematically collected enumeration data (such as those collected for a census), researchers interested in reconstructing regional demographic histories are left with few choices. This is especially true for those wishing to examine demographic trends before the first federal census of 1790. One could spend months, or longer, pouring over the extant documents compiling a demographic profile, or one could rely on secondary sources and hope that the earlier research was representative. In most cases it is a feast or famine situation: the available data is either too detailed and overwhelming, or at such a course level as to be of little use. The early federal census' suffer from both- individual enumeration (too detailed) collected for territorially large townships or counties (too coarse). The question becomes, what data are available to researchers which have enough derail as to be meaningful while also being coarse enough to make more general trends apparent? The answer comes from a somewhat surprising place: graveyards and cemeteries. Burying grounds have several important characteristics which make them quite useful in reconstructing demographic histories: they are spread across the landscape, occur in sufficient quantity to allow for rather detailed information to be gleaned while allowing trends to be discerned, there is typically not an issue with "double counting" (in as much as people only die and are buried once), they are rather permanent, and are at a fixed point on the surface. This last characteristic is important because it remains constant while artificial boundaries (such as township or county boundaries) change. There is one final burying ground characteristic which is of the utmost importance in their usefulness-people have been reading, compiling, and publishing the monument inscriptions for almost 100 years (Figure 1). From Jeremiah Zeamer in the early 1900s to today's genealogical societies and interested individuals, cemetery inscription recording has provided researchers with an invaluable source of demographic information.
This paper presents an attempt to reconstruct some of the basic demographic characteristics of Cumberland county between 17 40 and 1800 using grave marker inscriptions as the primary data source. Inscriptions from 70 cemeteries and graveyards covering 26 townships and boroughs in Cumberland county were compiled from published sources. Only the inscription information for people born before 1799 were used in this research, resulting in a data set of just over 2000 individuals. The inscription data used for this study was reformatted so that names (surname and given name), date of birth, and date of death were geographically associated with the burying ground in which the person was interred (Figure 2). Gender was implied from the given names, and in most cases this was readily apparent. In those cases where gender was unclear, or where the birth or death date was in question, the individual was removed from the analysis. There was an attempt made to compile inscriptions from every township in the county; however, inscription data for a few townships were unavailable. Nonetheless, the geographic distribution of the burying grounds used in this study is sufficient to be able to shed light on some locational aspects of the population.
“Pressure of the times.” “Scarcity of money.” “Scarcity of work.” “Persistence of creditors.” “Family sickness.” “Low wages.” “Unemployment.” “Bought high and had to sell low.” Are these familiar phrases heard in the last couple of years? Yes. But they are also verbatim phrases found in petitions for insolvency to the Cumberland County courts from 1750-1860 by debtors who found themselves arrested on a judgment for debt.