I became interested in state hospitals many years ago after finding out I had an uncle that had spent time in an institution, although he only had Down’s Syndrome. Later I visited various state hospitals that had been closed and discovered the existence of their cemeteries & was surprised that there was almost no information available about the people buried in them.

In 2006 Bruce Burris held the first meeting of the Eastern State Hospital Cemetery Club. It quickly grew into a source of information for family members looking for their lost relatives. The project continues today and with the help of this website, will make it possible to find information on all of the cemeteries and records for the state’s institutions.