Cemeteries in Massachusetts (State)

Massachusetts holds the distinction of containing some of America's oldest burial grounds, with cemeteries dating back to the earliest colonial settlements. The Phipps Street Burying Ground in Charlestown, established in 1630, stands as the oldest cemetery within Massachusetts, followed closely by the Myles Standish Burying Ground in Duxbury where most Mayflower passengers were buried.

The evolution of burial practices in Massachusetts reflects broader changes in American spirituality, from Puritan death's head imagery on seventeenth-century stones to cherubs during the Great Awakening and later neoclassical urns and willows.

Cemeteries in Massachusetts serve as invaluable repositories of colonial and revolutionary history. Plymouth County contains some of America's oldest maintained cemeteries, including Burial Hill in Plymouth, while Boston's Granary Burying Ground houses Revolutionary War patriots including Paul Revere and three Declaration of Independence signers.

Today, cemetery records from Massachusetts provide genealogists and historians with essential documentation of the state's founding families and their descendants, preserving three centuries of New England heritage across the Commonwealth's diverse burial grounds.