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Welcome to Historic

Mount Olive Cemetery

Wilmington, Delaware

Just After Dawn

Just After Dawn, facing SE

TIMELINE - a place in History

1862 - property for St. Peter's Cemetery purchased by Mother AUMP church
1914 - St. Peter's Cemetery moved to present location, Mount Olive
2012 - 150th anniversary of the cemetery founding
2014 - 100th anniversary of Mount Olive

(including records of burials moved from St. Peter's Cemetery at Bancroft Parkway and Lancaster Avenue)

STONES POSTED BURIALS IDENTIFIED
(St. Peter's and Mount Olive)		 Earliest stone identified Last  Updated
927 3798 1861
  • POSTED:
    • 1862-1890
    • 1895-1896
    • 1905-1906
    • 1916-1919
    • 1954-1955
Mount Olive Cemetery is an historic African-American cemetery located near Wilmington, DE on Lancaster Avenue. The cemetery entrance is marked with  a Historic Marker - from the Delaware State website.

Because of the move from St. Peters to Mount  Olive in the early 1900s, the use of death records, census and newspaper clippings will help identify not only the persons with existing tombstones, but additional people buried here as well.

Early Spring

Spring flowers, wild roses and wild raspberries grow throughout the cemetery.

Many gravesites have roses lovingly planted by the headstones.

VOLUNTEERS: Please see our contacts if you can assist with maintenance.
Work in progess:
May 2013 -
  • Add gps for existing stones
  • Add gps + photos for family plot markers
  • A search of the Veterans' Marker database identified another Civil War veteran - Enoch Jefferson, U.S. Navy
  • Research burial records to identify residents with no stones
  • Research maps to determine locations
Digital images of existing stones are available. Contact  rmbarry1066@earthlink.net

LIMITATIONS:

Early death records don't always have a burial location. A transcript of the earliest records is here

Apr 2013 - eath records prior to 1961 are now available
The location(s) cited in burial / death records for this survey include 'St. Peters', 'Front and Union', 'Mt. Olive', 'Ezion', 'Union Cemetery'. References to 'Col. Cemetery'; where other family members are buried at Mount Olive or St. Peters are included. Some persons identified by tombstones found in Mount Olive are actually listed in the death records as 'internment at Mt. Zion'.

The earliest burial records do not indicate a burial location.

NOTE: Stones which were moved from St. Peters are sometimes in a WSW orientation. Later stones are in an EW orientation, facing the dawn.

FAMILY NAMES

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UNIDENTIFIED STONES

All identifiable stones were photographed fall / winter / spring 2011-2012
.		 Notes for GPS:

The entrance to the cemetery is:
N39° 45'.379 W-075° 35'.863

All stones within the cemetery are:
N39° 45.xxx W-075° 35'.xxx
(note: my gps reads -075 as a positive number; on an absolute coordinate map the cemetery is -075 xxxx)

We were able to find stones with ca. 7 ft accuracy on a clear day using a hand-held GPS. Accuracy under the trees was about 10 ft.

GPS coordinates will be added to existing stones as available. 

This information is provided to help family genealogists, historians and anyone with interest in Wilmington communities and families.

Facing East from West Corner of Mount Olive

                        Spring Cherry blooms
Last updated:
Vistors since 28 Jul 2012