This list of tombstone inscriptions of Mt. Hope Cemetery is only partially complete. All legible tombstones in the older sections were copied in the mid 1980s by Richard Halsey. Those sections take in all the lots north of Grove Ave. The newer sections continue to be copied by Karen Dau. Those sections that have been transcribed are colored on the map, below.

There are still people being buried in the older scection. The reason is that most of the lots were sold as family plots and current owners of the plots may still bury family members in their plots. This is very beneficial for genealogical research in that there may be many generations of a family buried together. Also, in the 1970's, the City of Rochester began buying back plots that were no longer wanted by the owners and then resold them for current burials. The newer sections were added over time to almost double the original size of the cemetery.

The first burial in Mt. Hope Cemetery was that of William Carter, who died Aug. 17, 1838. There are approximately 670 inscriptions that pre-date the beginning of the cemetery. Some of these are removals from earlier cemeteries such as the Buffalo St. Cemetery and the Monroe St. Cemetery. Others are memorials to ancestors that died and are buried in other towns. In some cases it is very difficult to tell if the person has been moved to Mt. Hope or not. The oldest dated inscription in Mt. Hope is for Col. Zadock Granger who died in 1799. Family tradition states that he is buried in the Hanford Landing Cem. in the northern part of Rochester. But, there is no stone for him in that cemetery. Was he removed to Mt. Hope or not? There is no definite way to find out.

Not every person buried in this or any cemetery has a tombstone. The records in the office of Mt. Hope contain many more burials and if possible you should check these out for any other family members. The original records were filmed by the LDS and are available through any of their genealogy libraries throughout the world. Use this table to find which film of the burial records to order from the LDS:

The burial records referenced above have been put on the web by the University of Rochester. You can see the original pages for the years 1837 to 2002 at this page. Note that they are in PDF file format.

While compiling the tombstone in the older section, I kept track of the number burials found for a representative year (ie. 1850). There were 534 persons buried in Mt. Hope in 1850 but I only had 175 inscriptions. That means that probably only about 33% of the total burials for these lots are included in this list. That percentage is even lower for the Public Grounds and Old Single Graves which may only have one tombstone for each ten burials.

There are many tombstones that are partially or totally illegible; for many reasons. Some have been vandalized. Some have just fallen down because they were on the many hills in these lots and have slid down the hill. Also, modern pollution contains acids that have eroded the faces of some of the stones. For some of these stones, you may find an "*" which is one letter or number that is illegible or [illegible] which may be any amount of illegible material.

COMMON ABBREVIATIONS

Arty. = Artillery
Baty. = battery
[blank] = nothing; where a date should be
Co. = (military) company
F & A M = Free and Accepted MASONS
G.A.R. = Grand Army of the Republic
Inf. = Infantry
NYC = New York City
O.E.S. = Order of the Eastern Star
Vol. = Volunteer
WWI = World War 1
WWII = World War 2
* = an illegible letter or number