It is the goal of the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance to locate confirm and register EVERY cemetery in the state of Alabama, regardless of it's age, location, or religious and ethnic background.
While the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) focuses on historical properties and cemeteries older than 40 years and of historical value and the National Register of Historic Places requires 50 years or older to be eligible for registering, the ACPA directs it's efforts to cover ALL Alabama cemeteries in order to encourage their long-term maintenance, preservation, and conservancy. Many of Alabama's older cemeteries qualify to be registered with both the AHC and the ACPA. Because all of Alabama's cemeteries represent a great part of Alabama's history and are "repositories of unique genealogical, historical, religious, cultural, societal and medical information that may not be recorded in any other format"*, they are sources of priceless personal and historical information and their locations MUST be identified and protected.
Many of our cemeteries have been lost due to neglect and the ravages of time and nature. They are exposed to the elements and to those who would do harm to them through theft and vandalism. It is because of these factors that the ACPA has developed this Cemetery Register to help to identify and confirm their whereabouts and even existence. It is our hope that the ACPA and this Cemetery Register will encourage the preservation of Alabama's cemeteries by documenting them and by lending support to local preservation activities. It is also hoped, that this knowledge and the information that the ACPA Cemetery Register collects into it's database may help to encourage concerned and motivated individuals and groups to form cemetery associations to preserve and protect Alabama's cemetery heritage for all generations to come.