Cemeteries in Kentucky (State)

Kentucky was first organized as Kentucky County (also called Kentucke County) by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1777, carved from the western portion of Fincastle County beyond the Big Sandy River and Cumberland Mountains. The region was subsequently reorganized as the District of Kentucky from 1780 to 1792 before achieving statehood as the fifteenth state on June 1, 1792, becoming the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains.

The first permanent White settlement was established at Harrodsburg in 1774, followed by Boonesborough in 1775. Early European settlers were primarily English, Scots-Irish, and German immigrants who arrived via Virginia and Pennsylvania. The territory attracted diverse immigrant populations throughout the 19th century, including Swiss, Germans, and Austrians who established small colonies across the state by 1885, spanning from Lyon County in western Kentucky to Laurel County in the east.

The name Kentucky derives from a Native American word meaning "land of tomorrow" or "meadowland," referencing the area's fertile hunting grounds used by numerous tribes including the Shawnee, Cherokee, and Iroquois. Ten constitutional conventions were held in Danville between 1784 and 1792 to secure separation from Virginia and achieve statehood.

Primary cemeteries serving Kentucky from early settlement to present include Frankfort Cemetery, established in 1844, and numerous historic burial grounds established by early immigrant communities throughout the Commonwealth.