• Added page for Smith Cemetery in Kanawha County

• Added page for Logan County Cemeteries
• Working on page for Forest Hill Cemetery in Mason County

• Added page for the Leonard Wood grave in Union District of Mason County.  Not much is known about this Confederate soldier who died during the war from sickness - can anyone help find out more about this young man and his story?
• Added page for the Arbuckle Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Union District of Mason County

• New additions to the "Who Are We?" page - a wonderful verse called "We Are The Chosen" - that strikes a cord in our hearts each time we read it, and we've posted it to share with all of you, knowing that you understand those feelings too.  From Joel & Donna, and on behalf of all the WVCPA volunteers across West Virginia and the rest of the United States, a Blessed Thanksgiving to you all!
• Added page for Parkins Cemetery (a.k.a. Paradise Cemetery) in Putnam County

• Added page for Parthena Baptist Cemetery (a.k.a. Jack Estes Cemetery) in Putnam County, thanks to the research efforts and photography of WVCPA volunteer Terry McCallister

• Added pages for Hill Cemetery and Shinn Cemetery in Jackson County (both in the Rockcastle area), thanks to the investigative work and photography of WVCPA volunteer Rick Hill - thanks Rick!

• Added pages for Mount Vernon Baptist Church Cemetery in Putnam County

• Important updates - photographs and news - for the Rock Spring Cemetery in Jackson County are in progress.  Please visit this cemetery page now, and again in the weeks to come, as over 75 photos will be added to this page over the coming days.  Many of the photos deal with the improper cleaning of many of the stones this past summer that has left their surfaces pitted and much more porous than they were in their 'uncleaned' state.  There are apparently also a number of stones that have been removed from the cemetery without notification to the local family members looking after this cemetery, nor have they been replaced by new stones.  The "Comments" & "WVCPA Action" commentary at the bottom of the page explains more.

• Added page for Childers Cemetery near Bills Creek in Putnam County

• Added page for Lawrence Cemetery in Putnam County

• Added more photos for the Dodd-Mitchell Cemetery in Putnam County - WVCPA volunteer Terry McCallister, along with others, is working to rescue this cemetery from the ravages of time and neglect.  If you would like to help Terry in this effort, contact us at WVCPA and we'll put you in touch with him. Thanks for the latest photos Terry!
• Joel & Donna have returned to Colorado after their latest trip to WV to gather photos, continue research and documentation on cemeteries long forgotten by most, and to sign the paperwork on the purchase of their new farm in Mason County! Several days of this trip were spent getting the home in living condition, meeting the new neighbors and making arrangement for the care of the farm while they're back in Colorado doing their "day jobs".  Joel is quoted as saying, after a late morning walk around the front fields of the farm, "We live in Paradise!" - do you think we should let the word out that West Virginia is in reality more than "Almost Heaven"?

• Finishing up page for Center Point Church Cemetery in Putnam County - still a few more photos to go, but those should be completed before the end of the week
• Making final preparations for our October research/photo trip to WV - this trip we'll be focusing on Mason and Monroe county cemeteries and background study, and setting up our WV "base of operations" in Leon. We plan on meeting with a number of active WVCPA volunteers - from WV, and others that will be coming in from out of state and meeting with us in Leon. If you contact us by email over the next two weeks, our reply may not be as quick as we normally try to be, as many days we may not be in areas where we can get online.  Be assured that we will respond as soon as we are able. 

• Completed page for Warner-Thornton Cemetery in Putnam County
• Completed page for Reed Family Cemetery in Putnam County

• Completed page for Twin Pines Cemetery in Jackson County 

• Completed page for Smith Church Cemetery in Mason County
• Completed photos for the Wallace-McCallister Cemetery, Mason County, page

• Added page for Morning Sunrise Cemetery in Mason County.
• Posted a "page in progress" for Smith Church Cemetery in Mason County - there are many photos that we're still working through on this one, as well as a number of more recent burials to add to the roster.  What we have so far, however, is now available for you to view.
• Added a page for the Wallace-McCallister Cemetery in Mason County.  This cemetery is being rescued by long-time WVCPA contributors, Terry and Fred McCallister. We expect to have photos of the progress online soon, so check back on this one if you're researching families buried here.

• Added page for Greenbrier County Cemeteries 
• Added page for the Old Greenbrier Baptist Church Cemetery - Gwinn Addition, thanks to the encouragement and assistance of Evelyn Drake who contributed a reading of this portion of the Old Greenbrier Baptist Church cemetery. Over 50 additional photos to come over the next few days for this cemetery page, so check back soon!

• Completed pages for the Jesse Hill Cemetery and Rankin Hill Cemetery of Mason Co., thanks to the always excellent work of volunteer Tracy Cain. The Rankin Hill Cemetery page includes photos taken, and contributed, by Rod Brand of the original Hill homestead from back in the late 1950s / early 1960s. Rod & Irene Brand's home now stands where the old farmhouse once stood, on the farm near where the Jesse Hill Cemetery is located.  Thank you for your help and caring about these old family cemeteries, Tracy, Rod & Irene!

• Completed the page for Fairmont City Cemetery, Marion Co., with photos and information graciously submitted by Gena Wagaman.
• Completed the page for the George Amos Family Cemetery, Marion Co., with photos recently submitted by Dede Burnell.  The photos include some great sunny springtime shots of this beautiful portion of our state, with the redbud in full bloom. 
• Completed the page for MacDonald Cemetery in Mount Hope, Fayette Co. and an Unnamed Cemetery from Gilmer County, with information provided by WVCPA contributor Melanie Whittington.

• Added page for Patton Cemetery in Fayette Co., thanks to the hard work - and willingness to share the fruits of the labor - of Pamela Thomas Gibson and her family.  If anyone has photos from this cemetery, we'd be glad to add them to the page.

• Exciting news is in the 'works' for our co-founders, Donna & Joel Duprey - thanks to an opportunity the Lord has so graciously provided them, they are currently in the process of buying a small farm in Leon, WV. "This is one step closer to coming home to our roots", says Joel, "This will provide us with a home base whenever we're in West Virginia for our ongoing cemetery research and preservation work, and will also serve as a location where we can more comfortably meet with our local volunteers and research associates." The details should be finalized in the beginning of September, just in time for their upcoming October trip from Colorado to WV for ten days of 'on-location' work.
• Posted the beginnings of a page for Leon Cemetery of Mason Co. - this is a relatively large cemetery, and will likely take some time to get online in its entirety.  Watch for updates as the weeks and months go by.
• DID YOU KNOW? ...that, to the extent possible, any 'actively used' cemeteries read by WVCPA staff and volunteers are kept up to date with the latest interments as posted in the regional newspapers, such as the Charleston Gazette, Charleston Daily Mail, Point Pleasant Register and Huntington Herald-Dispatch? If you are actively doing research on the more recently-living members of your extended family, be sure to check back on our cemetery pages as time passes.  Also, if we miss a recent burial that you know of, do let us know, as we don't have ready access to all local newspapers or may miss an obituary from time to time.

• Updated photos added to the Kimberling Cemetery (Mason Co.) page, including a photo from the 1930s, thanks to the contributions of Philip Pitzer and Jackie Smith.

• Added page for Preston County Cemeteries 

• Email Spam Outbreak - Based on the large number of automated emails we've received lately from internet service providers, it appears that the WVCPA email address has been spoofed on a number of 'questionable' systems, making it appear that WVCPA has been sending out a large amount of email spam, or unsolicited email advertising.   We want to assure you WVCPA is NOT the source of these unwanted emails.  Our systems are maintained with the latest anti-virus and anti-spam software to prohibit any infection of our systems that would cause email to be sent from our systems directly.  What has occurred is that our email address has been snatched from another system  and is being used without our consent.   While this is unfortunate, there is little that we can do to prevent that from happening.  Our apologies to any of you that have been recipients of spam that appears to have come from us.

• Added page for George Amos Family Cemetery in the region of Paw Paw District of Marion County (exact location yet to be determined), thanks to the contribution of Dede Burnell and her husband.  There is more to come for this cemetery's page, but we wanted to get this online to our readers as soon as possible to share the great story of it's re-discovery and restoration by the Burnell's (posted on the bottom of the cemetery page). The care and dedication that the Burnell's have given to this precious little burial place of George Amos and his wife Idney is inspirational.
• Currently working on photos for Smith Church Cemetery in Mason Co., as well as various updates on cemeteries we already have posted on the WVCPA site.  Another big cemetery page in the works is the Fairmont City Cemetery, thanks to the wonderful data that we received in July from Gena Wagaman, Project Director of the City Cemetery Restoration Project from WVU.  We will have these pages available as soon as we can.

• Added page for Armstrong-Wilson Cemetery in Union District of Mason County
• Added page for Jesse Hill Cemetery in Arbuckle District of Mason County

• Added page for Carney-Lewis Cemetery in Jackson County

• Added index page for Marion County Cemeteries
• Added page for Pitzer Family Cemetery in Marion County

• Added page for Clifton Hill Cemetery in Mason County

• Added page for Evening Sunset Cemetery in Mason County near the Putnam County line

• Added page for Pine Grove Cemetery in Colgone District (Leon) of Mason County

• Added "Pico Search" query boxes to both the WVCPA home page and our most-visited web page, "WV Cemeteries." To use this free service, enter the search word in the box, such as the surname "Pickens", click the "Search this site" button and the results will be displayed.  If you want to search using multiple words, such as "Mt. Moriah", be sure to type in quotation marks at the beginning and end of the phrase.  Keep in mind that searching for a person's name in quotes, such as "John Smith" may not return as many hits as you would expect.  Our cemetery pages are built in tabular format, with the first and last names in different table cells, so the first and last names of an individual are not usually located next to one another in the text, unless of course their full name is mentioned in the inscription or comment area on a page.  

  The search results are limited to pages that have been produced by WVCPA, and will not include information presented on external web pages that have been linked to on any of our pages.  This will particularly impact searches in counties where we have not yet built our own county index pages, and in cases where others have produced cemetery pages that have offered to share their sites with us.

  If you don't see the Search box on either the WVCPA Home page or on the WV Cemeteries page, you may need to click on the "Refresh" or "Reload" button on your web browser, as you may be looking at an earlier cached version of the page.

Try this out, let us know how well it's working for you.  If it proves useful, we might consider purchasing the expanded service subscription which will allow us to index and search more than the 250 web pages that the free account allows (we currently have 206 web pages under the WVCPA site, according to the Pico Search index that ran today - can you believe it ?!).  We hope you enjoy this new feature! If you have any questions about this service, send us an email.

• Added page for Dunn Cemetery in Kanawha County, thanks to photos and research done by family researcher Bert Hudson.  
• URGENT MESSAGE to a Rock Springs Cemetery of Jackson County researcher: WVCPA volunteers were at this cemetery today doing follow-up research, and found to their horror that someone had "cleaned" all of the old tombstones with an acid wash, making them pure white and looking cleaner, but unfortunately such an acid wash will permanently damage these stones.  The volunteers found that even touching the stones with their hands still caused burning on their skin.  Even with the forecasted rain that should be coming later this evening and tomorrow, that will not be sufficient to remove the acid from the stones.  If you are the person that did this to the stones, PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS TO ANY MORE STONES, in this cemetery or in any other.  YOU HAVE IRREPARABLY DAMAGED THESE STONES.

• Added page for Greer Cemetery in Mason County, thanks to photos and research done by family researcher Veva Scott.  Veva has several more Mason County cemeteries that she's working on that we'll post on this site as soon as they're ready.  Thanks Veva!
• Just a note from Donna & Joel: Our email responses and postings of cemetery pages haven't been quite as swift as usual recently, due to a number of family matters that we've had to handle the past couple of months, the most significant among them was the passing of Donna's sister Karen in early May from a short, aggressive attack of a second round of breast cancer (she had been a 10 year survivor up until her diagnosis in December 2004).  We've been out of town in connection with her funeral, and have had family visiting us as well that's kept us otherwise occupied, but life seems to be getting somewhat back to normal for us now, sitting her together at our computers busy researching,  working on our databases and keeping in touch with you.   Messages of encouragement from so many of you for the work we're doing for the documentation and preservation of West Virginia's cemeteries and historic churches has helped us greatly through this difficult time.  Thank you so much!

• Added page for Barnette Cemetery in Rockcastle, Jackson County
• Added page for Josiah Harrison Cemetery (a.k.a. Harrison-Boggess) on Harrison Ridge, Goldtown, Jackson County

• Added page for Jacobs Cemetery near Elmwood in Union District, Mason County - PHOTOS NEEDED for this cemetery - anyone interested in getting photos for us to share with Jacobs and Kimberling family researchers that have been inquiring about this cemetery, as well as post it on the cemetery page?

• Added page for Apple Grove Memorial Gardens in Apple Grove, Mason County.  A VOLUNTEER IS NEEDED to take a print-out of the cemetery page to compare and note any inscriptions on the tombstones not presented there.  Included in that would be recording any burials in the cemetery that are not on the page.  If you're able to help, please contact WVCPA at .

• Added page for Elmwood Cemetery in Union District, Mason County

• Added page for Jarrett Hill Cemetery in Union District, Mason County

• Added pages for Welsh Cemetery in Hartford, Mason County - including photos from the cemetery clean-up in April 2004. 

• Added a page for Burford Cemetery in Midway, Putnam County.

• Added a page for Shamblen Cemetery in Kenna, Jackson County, as well as Hicks Cemetery and Esta Miller Memorial Park in Putnam County.

• Added a page for Tucker Cemetery in Union District of Mason County, and the first of several pages for Witcher Cemetery in Kanawha County.

• Completed updates to pages for Beale Chapel Cemetery, Mason County, including recent obituary research.

• Added a page for Stone Cemetery in Union District of Mason County.

• WVCPA is in the news again!  Check out our "In The News" page for the latest from the Charleston Daily Mail!
• Working on updates/additions to the Beale Chapel Cemetery page, and doing background obituary research for Tucker and Craig-Douglas Cemeteries for Mason County. Look for their pages to be added soon!

• Added a page for Kanawha County Cemeteries, gleaning names and locations from both the USGS topographic maps for the area and other listings of cemetery names in the county.  Additional work still to be done to precisely locate map coordinates for known cemeteries. Any information that our readers can provide is most appreciated!

• Added a page for Mt. Harmony Cemetery in Marion County, thanks to the volunteer efforts of Carla & Clinton Ely.  

• Added a page for Craig Cemetery at Grimms Landing in Mason County, thanks to the volunteer efforts of Ron Craig.

• Added a page for Stover Family Cemetery (a.k.a. Cossin-Stover) from Cologne Dist. in Mason County, thanks to the volunteer efforts of Carla & Clinton Ely.  

• Added a page for Hill Cemetery at Elmwood in Mason County.  

• Completed our "What Can I Do?" page.

• Added a page for Pitchford-Carney Cemetery in Putnam County.  An updated reading and photographs are in progress on this cemetery, thanks to the volunteer efforts of Crystal Clark of the Upper Vandalia Historical Society. Thank you to family researcher Kathy Pence for getting us started on this cemetery with the photos she contributed, now posted on this cemetery page.
• Many new photos and cemetery readings have been sent in to WVCPA recently, and we are busy processing these and doing background work for web pages for each cemetery.  Keep watching for additional pages being added as the Winter season progresses! (and a big THANK YOU to all our contributors that are keeping us more than busy - we love it!)

• HAPPY NEW YEAR from WVCPA!
• Added a page for Bucket Run Cemetery and new, non-WVCPA website links for Joe's Run and an additional link for Mt. Hope Church of God cemeteries in Jackson County, thanks to the research efforts of Bonnie Hendershot

• Added a page for McClure Cemetery, and a page for Salem Cemetery.  Both located on Gunville Ridge in Union District, Mason County.

• Added a page for Perrin Cemetery in Wirt County, thanks to the research efforts of Merry Anne Pierson and photographs from Charles Yeager.
• Made major updates to the Randolph Co. Cemeteries page

• Added a page for Boggess Cemetery in Marion County - a page built in cooperation with John Boggess and Bill & Connie Burkett of the Marion County USGenWeb project.

• We received, in the mail today, a copy of the article written in The State Journal (published out of Charleston) that was the result of an interview one of their staff writers had with Donna earlier in November.  The article was published November 26, 2004, and is transcribed on our "In The News" page. The author, Pam Kasey, a family researcher herself and frequent visitor to our web site, did a great job in passing on information about WVCPA and the work that we do. Thanks, Pam!
• Completed and posted major updates to the navigational information for the Putnam County Cemeteries page.

• Annual "Letter to our Supporters" posted - to view the letter, Click Here
• Currently working on a large number of cemetery photos/documents sent in by visitors to our website - watch for several new additions to our site early in the New Year, following the Christmas Holidays.

• Added a page for Wirt County Cemeteries.

• Added a page for Freeland Cemetery in Marion County - a page built in cooperation with John Boggess and Bill & Connie Burkett of the Marion Co. USGenWeb project.

• Added a page for Rockcastle E.U.B. Church, located just above Thirteenmile Creek in Union District of Mason County.

• Added a page for Priddy Family Cemetery in Union District of Putnam County.
• Added a page for Jennewine Cemetery in Monongalia County, thanks to the information and photos from contributors Bob & Elaine Burrell of Morgantown.
• Added a page for Monongalia County Cemeteries, gleaning names and locations from both the USGS topographic maps for the area and other listings of cemetery names in the county.  Additional work still to be done to precisely locate map coordinates for known cemeteries.

• Added a page for Gilboa Cemetery southwest of Grant Town in Marion County - our first cemetery for that county.  This page was added thanks to the tremendous work of one of our newest contributors, John Boggess from Indiana, who took all the photos and did most of the web page development for us.  John also sent us a number of supporting documents for the Gilboa Cemetery page, including a map of the cemetery on an Excel spreadsheet.  Thank you John - because of all the work you did for us, we were able to post this page in record time!!

• Added preliminary page for Independence Church Cemetery near Sandyville in Jackson Co., thanks to the information provided by researcher Connie Lasley.
• Donna was interviewed this past Sunday by Pam Kasey, writer for the State Journal newspaper of Charleston, WV. The newspaper is running a series of articles on genealogical research in the Mountain State, and will be including one on cemetery preservation in which our work will be featured.  Publication date is slated for November 19, 2004.  Watch for it on the newsstands then!

• We've returned from our recent trip to WV, bringing with us hundreds of tombstone, cemetery and church photos and page after page of research notes and interviews on cassette tape.  It was a wonderful trip, as always, to our home away from home, despite the 5 days Donna battled a bad cold and the rainy weather that kept us indoors a couple of the days.  Of particular note was the discovery of the exact location of the Hill Cemetery at Elmwood, WV (and the hilarious time had by all when Joel & cousin Elouise fell into Mudlick Fork while Joel was giving her a piggyback ride to keep her from getting her feet wet and muddy - I don't think her feet ever did get wet, but the rest of her sure did!). We were disappointed to not have found the exact location of the old Elmwood Cemetery and the two remaining tombstones (Joseph & Isabelle Harrison's and George Edwards') that were sighted, tossed aside on a nearby hillside, some 20 years ago.  We had a valiant team of 8 family and friends from West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana combing the hillsides of Elmwood with us, including the eyewitness of one of the stones those 20 years ago.  We haven't given up yet - someday we'll locate those stones! 
• Other cemeteries and churches to watch for pages coming up on our site are, in Mason County; Salem Cemetery, Stone Cemetery, Rockcastle Church, Arbuckle Presbyterian Church & cemetery and Mt. Tabor cemetery (new section).
• We also had a delightful trip to Lewisburg in Greenbrier County and neighboring Monroe County, visiting the Old Stone Church & cemetery, Old Rehoboth Church & cemetery, Greenbrier Baptist Church & cemetery and spending a day in the county courthouses and at the Greenbrier Historical Society Archives doing preliminary research on the two counties (and early historical records of Kanawha, Mason, Putnam & Jackson counties, as these were once a part of early Greenbrier county).
• Awaiting us in our email box on our return from West Virginia were also cemetery readings and/or photos from volunteers across the midwest for the following cemeteries (counties indicated in parentheses); Jennewine Cemetery (Monongalia Co.), Patton Cemetery (Fayette Co.) and Walker Chapel Cemetery (Putnam Co. - add'l. photos). To our contributors - thank you! We'll be in touch with you as soon as we get ourselves settled back into our routine (and over our colds - Joel has the cold now too!).

• Added page for Walker Chapel Cemetery in Union District, Putnam Co. 

• For Rock Spring Cemetery in Jackson Co., completed the comparison with earlier reading and research published by the Jackson Co. Historical Society in "Jackson County Cemetery Inscriptions", and after a subsequent trip to the cemetery to compare the faded inscriptions with the photographs - a number of corrections and additions have been made to the page, including complete birth & death dates, maiden names, etc. If you have used the information on this cemetery from our site, do check the dates and names again here, as there are many changes.

• Final plans being made for another research trip to WV, scheduled to occur October 7-18, 2004.  Highlights from our agenda: 
  • working with a group of volunteers to locate reported stones still on site of a cemetery destroyed in the early 70's in southern Mason Co.; 
  • background research in libraries, court houses, funeral homes, etc. on cemeteries in Jackson, Mason, Putnam, Kanawha & Monroe Counties;
  • an overnight trip to Lewisburg in Greenbrier Co., and a day at Union in Monroe Co. and the Second Creek area;
  • research trip to Marshall Univ. in Huntington with one of our volunteers to try and locate some historic church and community information for Mason & Putnam Counties; and, as usual (!)
  • photographing additional cemeteries, taking retakes, working on plot map diagrams for cemeteries already read, and much, much, more!!

• Added page for Clendenin Family Cemetery in Union District, Putnam Co. (Above Right Fork of Clendenin Creek)
• For Given Cemetery in Jackson Co., completed the comparison with earlier reading and research published by the Jackson Co. Historical Society in "Jackson County Cemetery Inscriptions" - a number of corrections and additions have been made to the page, including complete birth & death dates, maiden names, etc.
• Hyperlinked remaining church and cemetery references on this page to the corresponding WVCPA page.  This will be a standard format in the future, to speed your navigation to the new pages.

• Added page for Jeffries Family Cemetery in Union District, Putnam Co. (Fisher Ridge)

• Added page for Mount Olive Church above Rockcastle, Jackson Co.
• Added page for Mt. Moriah Church in Ripley District, Jackson Co. (Parchment Valley)
• Entered additional biographical information on Rev. Jabel Bowles to Pleasant Hill M.E. Church page (Jackson Co.)

• Completed photos for Pleasant Hill Church Cemetery
• Added page for Pleasant Hill M.E. Church in Ripley District, Jackson Co. - the second church added to our collection of historic church photo pages.

• Added page for Pleasant Hill Church Cemetery of Ripley District, Jackson Co. - photos being edited and added to the page over the next few days.

• Added page with photos for Ezekiel Sayre Cemetery of Union District, Mason Co.
• Added page with photos for Earl Sayre Cemetery of Union District, Mason Co.
• Added photos from contributor to Emma Chapel Cemetery - Bradley family
• Added page with photos for Tillis Cemetery, Union District, Mason Co.

• Added page with photos for Pine Grove M.E. Church Cemetery from Arbuckle District in Mason Co. (in Cornstalk Wilderness Area).
• Added page with photos for Mt. Zion Church Cemetery from Union District in Putnam Co. 
• Added to and corrected reading, and added more photos for the Mt. Moriah Church Cemetery, Parchment Valley, Jackson Co.

18 July 2004:

• Added page with photos for Staton Cemetery at Eleanor, Putnam Co.
• Placed additional photos on the Tucker Cemetery (Putnam Co.) page, contributed by Terry McCallister.

• Added page with photos for Anderson Cemetery at Plum Orchard, Jackson Co.

• Added page with photos for Asbury Cemetery in Liberty, Putnam Co.

• Well, the weekend trip to WV June 18-20 was fruitful. Over 1300 photos were gathered of cemeteries and old churches.  Many more "harder-to-find" cemeteries in Putnam, Jackson and Mason counties were located for future photo documentation and reading updates, and a number of initial photos of these were taken to begin building web pages for each.  
  
• Brown & Welsh cemeteries in Hartford, Mason Co. were visited to see how they are faring after their clean-up's over the past year.  With all the rain and warm, humid weather WV has been having, the "jungle" has begun to grow in and over these cemeteries already.  It is a reminder that it is an ongoing process to keep a cemetery maintained, much as you would do for your own yard.  Leave it alone for a season, and the weeds and forest will quickly take the advantage.  Hopefully, once the weather dries out a bit, local volunteers will be able to once again visit these two old cemeteries and get the undergrowth tamed again (oh, how Donna wished she had a weed-eater packed in her luggage - wonder how airport security would handle it if she did?!).
  
• We've fielded quite a bit of correspondence of late for advice on how to clean up and maintain a cemetery that has been all but forgotten.  One notable one, which had a write-up in the Charleston Daily Mail not long ago, is the Sattes Cemetery and the adjoining paupers' graveyard at Kanawha Two-mile in the West Charleston area.  Apparently there is a group of community volunteers trying to bring these cemeteries back from dead, as it were.  There is a hunt afoot for a complete listing of those buried at Sattes.  While we've been working on reviewing old obituaries from the Charleston Daily Mail and Charleston Gazette from the early half of the 20th century to find names of people buried there, there are certainly older, as well as more recent burials in these cemeteries.  If anyone has such a list, or knows where we could get hold of one, please contact us and we will forward it to one of the project coordinators.  Any old photos of this cemetery would be greatly appreciated as well - we'll post them on this site to share with others.
  
• There is good news on the technical front for us as well - the replacement hard drive arrived while Donna was in WV.  She spent all last evening and most of today rebuilding the system on our second computer, bringing it back online on our network, making it possible for both Donna & Joel to be working online at the same time.  Now they'll be able to catch up on email responses to those of you who've written recently, and to get working on processing all the data and photos that have been gathered on WV cemeteries during the past couple of months.  A reminder to our faithful supporters - this hard drive replacement cost us nearly $400 in parts alone.  Please take the opportunity today to send a generous donation to WVCPA to help defray such expenses so that this organization can continue to do this valuable work.  This would be a great opportunity to try out our new secure online donation service - you'll find "Donate" buttons on both the Contribute page and the WV Cemeteries page.

• Donna will be in WV June 17-20 for more photography and to check in with local volunteers.  Her time will be limited in WV this time, as this trip is in conjunction with training in Columbus, OH the week of June 21 being funded by her employer.  We're thankful for the opportunity this provides WVCPA to have additional time in the State this year.  Pray for good weather, that she and our volunteers can be out in the field visiting many cemeteries and gathering much data, as well as a safe drive for her to and from Columbus.  As Donna is our resident "techie", otherwise known as our System Administrator, if the replacement drive for our computer does not arrive in the next day or two, the system rebuild noted in the previous post will not be completed until after her return on the 24th.

• Hard drive failure on our main computer - still waiting for replacement parts (min. $360 - ugh!).  Only minor data lost, mostly archives of old email correspondence (it pays to run regular backups!).  When we get the new drive, there will be a number of hours needed to rebuild the system to be able to get us back up to full operations.  This has virtually stopped our processing of the data gathered in April.  

• WVCPA Board of Directors meeting in Madison, Indiana.  A number of good suggestions provided by our Board, and encouragement as well.

• Added cemetery page for Mt. Olive Cemetery, Rockcastle, Jackson County.

• Added Guestbook link to the WVCPA homepage - looking forward to your greetings! Remember, including your email address or web page address is optional.

• Added cemetery page for Barr Cemetery, Union Dist., Mason County.
• Added cemetery page for Bethel Church Cemetery, Cologne Dist., Mason County.

• Added cemetery page for Baden Baptist Cemetery, Cologne Dist., Mason County.
• Added news article about WVCPA from the Point Pleasant Register to the "In The News" page.

• Added links to cemetery listings for all remaining counties - not necessarily WVCPA maintained sites, however.
• Continuing work on reviewing and preparing the data from our April trip to WV. We had an AWESOME time! - over 2500 photos taken and had fun working with the AmeriCorps team in Mason Co. on the cemetery rescue for Welsh Cemetery (a.k.a. Hartford Cemetery - Brown Cemetery has been maintained since the November '03 clean-up, so plans were changed at the last minute to see to Welsh Cemetery.  Watch this site for updates and photos for this, one of Mason County's oldest cemeteries!).

• Added main page for Brown Cemetery, with photos of the cemetery "Pre-rescue".  The Rescue Project for Brown Cemetery is scheduled to continue on April 24, 2004 at the cemetery from 9 a.m. until 3 or 4:00 in the afternoon - lunch will be provided by the organizing committee through the donations from local businesses.  Joel & I will be there rain or shine, and hope to see as many of our WVCPA supporters there as can make it for part, if not the whole, day!

• No fooling!!  WVCPA has obtained the official status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization from the IRS.  The application was accepted on the first submission (virtually unheard-of, according to our accountant!), and within 90 days of our submitting all the application paperwork and supporting documentation to the IRS.  God is good!!  In compliance with public disclosure requirements of the IRS to maintain this status as a publicly-supported organization, a web page is under construction for the display of the documents from the IRS.  Watch for links to the page, coming soon to the "Contribute" page already posted on this site.

• Updated County cemetery lists for Jackson, Mason & Putnam Counties to include GPS coordinates at greater level of detail, as well as adding a number of them that were not listed before.

• Added cemetery reading and photos for West Cemetery in Putnam County
• Completed the "Cemetery Readings" page, where guidance is provided for the basics of what we would like to receive from contributors of cemetery readings/photo surveys
• NEWS!  According to the latest web site statistics, since we began monitoring traffic volume on our site in early November 2003, we've had over 1,300 unique visitors to our home page.  The most popular page these past four months has proven to be the WV Cemeteries page.  Just so you know we're watching to see what you're most interested in, and doing what we can to provide more information in these areas.  If you have any suggestions for further improvements or additions to our site, please let us know!

• Added cemetery reading and photos for Myers Cemetery and Promised Land Church & Sayre Cemeteries from Union District of Mason County

• Added cemetery reading and photos for Mt. Moriah Church Cemetery in Parchment Valley, Jackson County, and cemetery page for Barnett-Ward Cemetery in Mason County.

• Added links to non-WVCPA sites for Mercer, Roane and Tyler Counties. 

• Added basic cemetery list pages for Brooke, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Jefferson, Monroe, Ohio, Pendleton and Upshur counties.  Included live links and "In Progress" labels to individual cemeteries on many of these pages.
• Added more photos to existing cemetery pages for Putnam County.

• Added cemetery reading and photos for Riffle Chapel Cemetery in Mason County.

• Added cemetery readings and photos for Dodd/Mitchell Cemetery in Putnam County, as well as for Rock Castle Church (a.k.a. Sayre) Cemetery in Mason County.  
• Work still in progress on photos and readings for a number of Mason and Putnam County cemeteries, with more photos arriving from contributing photographers weekly.  Photos also arriving/have arrived for historic churches in Mason County, including Potts Chapel, Wolfe Valley Chapel, Riffle Chapel and Rock Castle Church.  A number of photos and pages remain to be developed for Jackson County cemeteries and churches.
• Work continues, particularly for Mason and Putnam Counties, on locating individual cemeteries by GPS coordinates (latitude & longitude degrees) on from topographic maps, WV Dept. of Transportation maps, aerial photographs and guidance by local residents.  As these counties approach completion, Jackson, Kanawha, and Cabell counties are expected to be begun.  Preliminary lists of the remainder of WV counties will continue as time allows, with at least these initial lists projected for being available before the close of 2004.
• "What Can I Do?" page underway... due to post in early February.

• Added cemetery readings and photos for Maddox Cemetery, Gibson Cemetery and Tucker Cemetery in Putnam County.
• Emma Chapel Cemetery work complete with available photos - additional photos to be (hopefully) taken in the Spring.
• Work in progress for Riffle and Rock Castle (a.k.a. Sayre) Cemeteries in Mason County.

• Expanded the Putnam County Cemetery register to include all cemeteries listed in the Upper Vandalia Historical Society publication "Putnam County Cemeteries".  Work still to be done in locating each by latitude and longitude and district within the county.
• Updated 'Mission' page with a reference to the historical preservation associations we maintain memberships in and that we contribute to.
• Working on the final sorting and coding of an updated page for Emma Chapel Cemetery in Putnam County - over 600 new photos to be added to the existing site, close to 300 remain to be taken or retaken for a complete, up-to-date reading.  
• Work begun on photos for web page on Riffle Chapel Cemetery in Mason Co.
• Planning in progress for rescue and restoration  work in cemeteries in Mason Co. in late April 2004, as well as lining up research tasks to be accomplished during the 10 days we are in Mason County.

• Made the first entry on the "Favorite Inscriptions" page - thanks for sharing, Greg!

• Entered first "News" on the "In The News" web page

• Added web page "Who Are We?"

• Added web pages with preliminary cemetery listings for Barbour and Berkeley Counties

To view current "What's New" log entries, Click Here 
To view "What's New" log entries from 2010-11, Click Here
To view "What's New" log entries from 2009, Click Here
To view "What's New" log entries from 2008, Click Here
To view "What's New" log entries from 2007, Click Here
To view 2006 "What's New" log entries, Click Here