Source Information

Ancestry.com. Clay County, Missouri, Cemetery Index, 1844-1938 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2001.
Original data: Ellsberry, Elizabeth Prather, comp. Clay County, Missouri Cemetery Records. Vol. I-II. Chillicothe, MO, USA: Elizabeth Prather Ellsberry, 1962.

About Clay County, Missouri, Cemetery Index, 1844-1938

This collection of cemetery records adds to the growing number of databases in the "Ellsberry Collection." The database (and the collection) was compiled by long-time researcher, school teacher, and professional genealogist Elizabeth Ellsberry. These cemetery records contain the name of the deceased and his or her relatives, birth date, death date, and age, when given. Researchers may also find notes on some of the listed graveyards. The database includes more than 3,000 entries.

These records were originally transcribed from gravestones by volunteers for the Daughters of the American Revolution. In the 1940s, DAR made an effort to transcribe as many country graveyards as possible, including those in Clay County. The findings were initially published in a Liberty, Missouri newspaper, the Liberty Tribune.

Ms. Ellsberry began genealogical publication in 1958, when she published her own family history, The Warrens and You. In researching her own family, she found that libraries needed additional information from cemetery records, wills, land records, probate records, census records, etc., to help people with their family history. Ellsberry decided that she wanted to help by publishing books that contained solid genealogical data. She taught school for 34 years, but on weekends and summer vacation, she would travel around to different courthouses and cemeteries, recording the information she found. She also corresponded with several researchers and helped them in their research. Ellsberry self-published more than 300 books, and most of them are available for sale.

Most of the compilation of these books took place between 1958 and into the 1970s, so the recorded information should include the cemetery and/or courthouse records of that time period.

Address:
Ms. Elizabeth Prather Ellsberry
P.O. Box 206
Chillicothe, MO 64601