As is common in any old public burial ground, the burial records of the Oak Cliff Cemetery have had a long and rather tortured history.

Although the first marked burial in the cemetery was in 1844 (that of the infant Martha Wright), records of burials were not begun until about 1905.  At that time, a handwritten ledger of burials was begun, as were separate burial cards.

In the late 1950’s, Mr. William Merrick Miller, Jr. transcribed the old ledger and cards into a new ledger; the original ledger and cards were burned in a fire in the 1970’s.

In the summer of 1993, the Dallas Genealogical Society embarked on the monumental project of recording all inscriptions on the 10 acre site, and used Mr. Miller’s ledger to fill in the records for unmarked graves.  The Society also corroborated the Cemetery records with the Texas Death Certificate Index and other sources when it found conflicting data or spelling discrepancies.

Altogether, there are approximately 2500 marked graves and 2500 to 3000 unmarked graves.  Errors from data transmission, illegible handwriting, illegible gravestones, and obscure field notes have given us a record that is as good as we can hope for, but filled with inaccuracies nonetheless.

The copyright of this burial record belongs to the Dallas Genealogical Society.  This record can be searched on the Dallas Geneological Society website by going to this link.

For burials since 1997, please contact us at info@oakcliffcemetery.org. 

Click to download a copy of this OCC Plat Map, which was prepared by the Dallas Genealogical Society in the 1990’s.