Cemetery care in New Hampshire is a local job. No single state office sells graves, keeps burial maps, or schedules interments. Each town, city, parish, and private association looks after its own ground. The records stay close to the people who dig, mow, and sign deeds. This page explains who does what, so your first phone call reaches the right person.

Our database lists 199 cemetery entries across 92 communities. Manchester and Nashua lead, but the long tail matters just as much. Small places such as Wilmot, Wilton, Alton, and Hollis each run a burial ground that has served the same families for generations. They often have part-time staff and limited office hours.

How Cemetery Offices Are Organized in New Hampshire

The main statute is RSA Chapter 289, the cemetery chapter of the state's Revised Statutes Annotated. It covers how towns hold, maintain, and protect burial grounds, including old family plots and abandoned graveyards. Day-to-day work usually falls to elected or appointed cemetery trustees, a sexton, or the public works department. Long-term upkeep money is normally held by the trustees of trust funds. This is a separate local board that invests perpetual care deposits apart from the town budget.

In practice, you will meet four kinds of operators:

A few services do sit at the state level. Funeral directors are licensed through the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. Death records flow through the town or city clerk and the state Division of Vital Records Administration. The New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen, in Merrimack County, serves eligible veterans and their families from every part of the state.

Because ownership differs so much, the first question to ask is simple: who owns this cemetery? The answer tells you whether to call a town hall, a parish office, or a cemetery board. It also tells you where the lot deeds and burial registers are kept.

City Cemeteries Versus Country Burying Grounds

Hillsborough County holds the most entries in our database, with 56. You will find Manchester, Nashua, Amherst, Milford, Hollis, Goffstown, Merrimack, Wilton, and Bedford there. You can browse them on the Hillsborough County page. In the larger cities, expect a real office, posted hours, a printed price list, and sometimes searchable records. Amoskeag Cemetery on Fieldcrest Road in Manchester lists 603-624-6514. The Nashua entry on Amherst Street lists 603-883-5692.

A word of caution about directory listings. Some entries are not burial grounds at all. Names such as Nashua Hmis Cemetery Software and Beede Cemetery Lettering suggest a records vendor or a lettering service. Call before you drive out, and ask whether the address is a place where burials actually happen.

Merrimack County follows with 28 entries. Blossom Hill Cemetery at 207 North State Street in Concord lists 603-225-3911. Pembroke, Bow, Hooksett, and Wilmot also appear on the county page. Capital-area families sometimes look at the state veterans cemetery in Boscawen as well.

Rural towns work differently. In Wilmot, Tewksbury Cemetery on Stearns Road lists 603-526-2942. In Bow, Bow Green Cemetery on Woodhill Road lists 603-228-1187. At offices like these, the contact may be a selectman's office, a trustee who answers in the evening, or the town clerk. Leave a clear message with the family name, the lot if you know it, and your callback number.

The North Country has its own rhythm. Coos County has 20 entries, concentrated in Gorham and Berlin. Gorham Holy Family Cemetery at 30 Church Street lists 603-466-2335. Russian City Cemetery on East Milan Road in Berlin lists 603-752-2340. Its name echoes the immigrant mill-town history of the Berlin area. Distances are longer up here, and many caretakers work out of a town office that is open only a few days a week.

Climate shapes scheduling across the whole state. The ground freezes hard from late autumn into spring, especially in the White Mountains and the North Country. Many towns keep a receiving tomb where caskets wait until the ground thaws. Some cemeteries also close interior roads to vehicles in winter. If a death occurs between December and March, ask your funeral director how the cemetery handles it before you set a date.

Old Burying Grounds in the Seacoast and Monadnock Regions

Rockingham County has 28 entries, including Portsmouth, Seabrook, and Salem. The Proprietors Burying Ground on South Street in Portsmouth lists 603-436-2323. It belongs to a seacoast tradition of colonial-era slate stones carved with winged faces and urns. Seabrook Hillside Cemetery at 28 Lafayette Road lists 603-474-9771. The county mixes tightly built coastal towns with busy commuter communities, so lot availability and pricing can differ sharply between neighbors.

In the southwest, Cheshire County has 18 entries. Ash Swamp Cemetery on West Street in Keene lists 603-357-9829. Conant Cemetery on Stratton Road in Jaffrey lists 603-532-6521. Jaffrey is also home to the Old Burying Ground at Jaffrey Center, where the novelist Willa Cather is buried. Visitors come to see her grave every year, so respect the grounds and keep to the paths.

Old stones need gentle handling. Slate delaminates, marble sugars and softens, and even granite can be scarred by harsh cleaners. Do not scrub with wire brushes or household bleach. Rubbings can also damage worn surfaces, so ask the cemetery office or the local historical society before you make one. If you want to help with preservation, historical societies and the New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association are good places to start.

Finding the Right Office and What to Bring

A few minutes of preparation saves a second trip. Whether you are buying a lot, scheduling a burial, or tracing a grave, gather the following before you call or visit:

Rules vary by cemetery. Some set limits on monument size, plantings, or decorations. Most want to approve a monument or marker before the dealer sets it, and many require a foundation installed by their own crew. Ask for the rules in writing so that the whole family sees the same terms.

Finally, use the county pages to widen your search. If the town you want has no office listed, a neighboring town or the county page may show who serves the area. Many small towns share a sexton, and church cemeteries are often handled through the parish office rather than the town.

Government cemeteries in New Hampshire include facilities administered by the VA's National Cemetery Administration, state veterans cemeteries funded through state and federal partnerships, and local municipal and county cemeteries operated by city and county governments throughout the state.

Cemetery locations are available in 92 cities across New Hampshire. They are spread across 10 counties.

Cities with the highest concentration include Nashua, Manchester, Keene, where established municipal cemeteries have served their communities for generations and maintain extensive historical burial records.

Veterans in New Hampshire may be eligible for burial in a state veterans cemetery at little or no cost. Contact the New Hampshire Department of Veterans Affairs or Veterans Services to confirm eligibility requirements and available state-operated facilities.

Cemetery by Counties

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Families and genealogists in New Hampshire can often request burial records from municipal cemetery offices or search online databases maintained by state archives and historical societies. Many New Hampshire counties have digitized older cemetery records that are available through county clerk or public library genealogy collections.

Browse Cemetery by county across New Hampshire to find the nearest location.

Costs, Records, and Timing at New Hampshire Cemeteries

Prices are set locally, so a lot in Manchester can cost a different amount than one in Hollis or Wilmot. We do not publish fee figures because they change and every cemetery sets its own. Ask for the current written price list. Also ask what it includes: the lot itself, opening and closing, perpetual care, and the foundation for a marker.

Recordkeeping varies just as much. Larger cemeteries often keep ledgers and plot maps in their own office. Small town burying grounds may store them with the town clerk or the cemetery trustees. Many older registers exist only on paper, and some towns have transcribed them for local historical societies.

If you are comparing counties, Strafford County covers Dover and Somersworth. Dover St Marys Cemetery on Dover Point Road lists 603-742-4837. Somersworth Forest Glade Cemetery on Maple Street lists 603-692-4266. Start with the nearest town office, then widen your search by county if that office points you elsewhere.

No single agency runs cemeteries here. State law, mainly RSA Chapter 289, sets the framework. Towns and cities own or oversee most public burial grounds through cemetery trustees, a sexton, or a public works department. Trustees of trust funds manage perpetual care money. Church cemeteries answer to their parish or diocese, and private associations answer to their own boards. For a question about a specific lot, start with the town or cemetery office, such as Salem's cemeteries and parks office at 603-890-2180, and ask who holds the records.

State law allows family burial grounds in some circumstances, but several layers of rules apply. Local zoning, water-supply protections, and deed recording requirements can all come into play, and the details depend on the town. Before you plan anything, speak with the town clerk, the local health officer, and the planning or zoning office. A funeral director can explain the paperwork that must be filed. Also think about a future sale, because a recorded burial ground usually stays with the land.

Start with the funeral director, who files the death certificate and arranges the burial permit with the city or town clerk. For a lot, contact the cemetery directly. Our database shows Amoskeag Cemetery on Fieldcrest Road in Manchester at 603-624-6514, and a Nashua entry on Amherst Street at 603-883-5692. Confirm that a listing is a burial ground, since some entries are software or monument services. Ask about lot availability, opening and closing fees, vault requirements, and how much notice the office needs to schedule the grave.

Often yes, but not at the usual pace. Frozen ground in the North Country and the White Mountains can make digging slow, costly, or impossible for weeks. Some towns keep a receiving tomb where the casket is held until spring, and the family then holds the committal service after the thaw. Seacoast cemeteries such as Seabrook Hillside usually see milder conditions than those in Coos County, but heavy snow can still limit access. Ask your funeral director and the cemetery office about their winter policy before you set a date.

The state veterans cemetery in Boscawen, in Merrimack County, serves eligible veterans and certain family members. Eligibility generally turns on military service and discharge status, and staff will ask for discharge papers such as a DD-214. Spouses and some dependents may qualify as well. Requirements and services can change, so contact the cemetery or the state veterans' services office before making plans. A funeral director who handles veteran burials can often submit the request for you and explain what the family should expect.

Begin with the town where the person lived or died. The town clerk, cemetery trustees, or local historical society may hold burial registers and lot maps. Call the cemetery office, such as Wilton Laurel Hill Cemetery on Abbot Hill Road at 603-654-9451, and ask whether it keeps a records book. For very old graves, try church records and printed town histories. Volunteers have surveyed many burying grounds, and the New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association can point you toward that work. Bring the full name, approximate dates, and known family lines.

Cremation requires approval beyond the death certificate, typically from a county medical referee, and a funeral director or crematory normally arranges it. Afterward, most cemeteries accept urns in a lot, a niche, or a cremation garden, and some require a burial container. Scattering on private land needs the owner's permission, and public lands have their own regulations. Before you buy a space, ask the cemetery whether it allows more than one set of ashes in a single grave and whether a marker is required.