Nebraska Cemeteries Online

There are many ways to locate Nebraska cemetery records on the Internet ... everything from Google to the USGenWeb pages to the tombstone project of the Nebraska State Genealogical Society. Here is just a sampling of what you can find on Internet.

Wyuka Cemetery at 3600 O Street in Lincoln was established by an act of the Nebraska Legislature in 1869. The original three acres east of the city is now within the city of Lincoln and no longer a "rural cemetery." The cemetery was patterned after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. Wyuka Cemetery now encompasses over 140 acres between O Street and north to Vine Street in Lincoln. They have an excellent searchable database for burial records.

Forest Lawn Cemetery at 7909 Mormon Bridge Road in Omaha has a searchable database which is a work in progress. They have almost 90,000 records on file. The Forest Lawn Cemetery Association was organized under the laws of Nebraska on 13 May 1885.

The cemetery at Kearney is located at 4440 Avenue I. They have a searchable database that is easy to access. They also have a detailed map for locating burial sites.

The North Platte Cemetery, located on West Rodeo Road, was established in 1872. Their record database is continually updated.

In Buffalo County, the Ravenna cemeteries of Highland, Mt. Calvary and Highland Park have online databases.

There are more databases of Nebraska cemeteries online. Just start exploring!

Busy Genealogists in Otoe Co., Nebraska

The Otoe County Genealogical Society at Syracuse, Nebraska is busy in the next few months with genealogy meetings and a conference. The county was one of the first established in Nebraska Territory and is home to Arbor Lodge. Members of the society are actively engaged in preserving the heritage of their area and state.

They will host their 10 March 2011 meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Morton-James Public Library, 923 First Corso, Nebraska City. There will be a genealogy workshop in both the media center and genealogy reference room at the library. The themes are "Researching Your Civil War Ancestors" and "Breaking Through Your Genealogy Brick Walls."

The 34th Annual Nebraska State Genealogical Society Conference will be held at the First United Methodist Church, 1023 1st Ave. in Nebraska City. The Otoe County Genealogical Society will host the event which will be held May 6-7, 2011. The main speaker for the event will be Gail Blankenau. She is a genealogist and photo historian and has written for the New England Historical and Genealogical Society Register, The Genealogical Helper and Family Chronicle.

Be sure to mark your calendar for these southeastern Nebraska genealogy events.

Civil War Conference in Nebraska

On April 28-30, 2011, a Civil War conference will be held at Fort Robinson State Park, 3 miles west of Crawford, Nebraska. "The Civil War in the American West" is the eighth Fort Robinson History Conference. It is co-sponsored by the Nebraska State Historical Society and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

The conference will explore ways the Civil War affected the history of Nebraska and the American West. Papers by scholars of the military and political history of the Civil War will be presented. They will also conduct a bus tour taking conferees to the site of Fort Mitchell and Mud Springs Station. The 4th U.S. Artillery Regimental Brass Band will present a concert of Civil War-era music.

Scheduled presenters and their topics include:

Dr. Douglas D. Scott -- "The Battle of Mud Springs, Nebraska, February 1865"

Dr. Richard W. Etulain -- "Abraham Lincoln and the American West"

Dr. Douglas W. Owsley -- "Forensic Investigation of the Civil War Casualties"

Dr. Michele Butts -- "The Galvanized Yankees"

John D. McDermott -- "The 1865 Powder River Expedition"

James E. Potter -- "Horses: The Army's Achilles Heel in the Indian War of 1864-65"

Randy Kane -- "Soldiers at Fort Union"

Dr. Mark Van de Logt -- "The Pawnee Scouts"

To request conference registration information when available e-mail lana.hatcher@nebraska.gov or call 402-471-3272.