The original intent of this undertaking was to publish the burial records for St. John's Cemetery.  

 

As this effort progressed, we found that many   of the burials from the Church of St. John the Evangelist were not taking place at the present  St. John's Cemetery or the early Roman Catholic burying ground, the Novitiate graveyard. Some had occurred at the "Manor" Petersville, Liberty, Montevue, Laboring Sons, Mount Olivet, and various other church cemeteries throughout Frederick County. Therefore, we expanded our effort to include all the burials from the Church of St. John the Evangelist, regardless of location, compiled from sources dating from the 1780s through December 31, 2000.

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The primary source for these burial records is the hand-written entries as recorded by various Jesuit priests from 1811 to 1902 and by Diocesan priests through December 31, 2000. Some of the entries in the late 1800s were in Latin and were very graciously translated by Father Albert Ledoux from Mount Saint Mary's University and Seminary. Please note that the entry dates may be burial dates and not necessarily the date of death. The Jesuit records do not include all the burials during this period for various reasons some of which are cited in the record themselves. These include the forgetfulness of the priest and the overwhelming number of deaths caused by epidemic. For example, an entry in December 1818 states: "The other records are missing for reasons beyond my control, 4/06/1815 to 12/31/1818." Another entry from about December 1830 states:.•  "Omitted  registering  the  interments  by  forgetfulness-absence  until  the following date - John McElroy. There has {sic) been about 35 entered in the Cemetery of St. John's from June until December, 1830, chiefly from the canal making from Georgetown  to  the Ohio."   Information on burials prior to 1811 comes from various sources.