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Laurel Cemetery Burials

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BAAHGS Genealogical Research

In 2018, Glenn Blackwell, Vice-president for Genealogy for the Afro American Historical and Genealogical Society, Agnes Kane Callum (Baltimore) Chapter, spearheaded a project to complete the genealogical research that Alma Moore began by compiling a list of individuals interred at Laurel Cemetery. Because the original documentation was lost or destroyed during the 1950s bankruptcy proceedings, the only method to reconstruct this information was to complete an exhaustive search of Baltimore City death certificates. Working with archivists at the Baltimore City Archives and the Maryland State Archives, Blackwell coordinated a team of volunteers and established a methodology to search and extract up to 21 categories of information for each individual who died in Baltimore and was buried at Laurel Cemetery.

These efforts are ongoing. Realistically, it may take years to completely search all relevant Baltimore City death certificates. The volunteers are searching through two series of reels of Baltimore City death certificates: 1) CM1132 which runs from Jan 1875 to Jan 1950 and consists of 248 reels averaging more than 3,000 death certificates per reel, and 2) series CE502 which runs from Jan 1950 to Dec 1957 (the last recorded burial at Laurel) and consists of 202 reels not exceeding 500 death certs per reel.

The group has completed the first nine reels, CM1132-001 thru CM1132-009, which cover Jan 1875 through Oct 1878. There were 4,117 Laurel burials during that period, an average of more than 1,000 burials per year in 1875 through 1878. As of January 2020, death certificates recorded from the completed reels, and additional portions of reels searched, report over 10,000 Laurel Cemetery burials.

Given the very large number of death certificates remaining to be searched, it is very likely that the total number of death certificates reporting burials at Laurel Cemetery will be over 20,000. Along with this, it must be taken into account that for the years 1852-1874, there were no death certificates while these were likely among the most active years for the cemetery.

Notable Individuals Interred at Laurel Cemetery

Biographical and historical information was researched and written by Donna T. Hollie, Ph.D., Vice-president for History, Afro American Historical & Genealogical Society, Agnes Kane Callum (Baltimore) Chapter. Click on the links for a biographical sketch.