Sources and Acknowledgements

The cemetery registry data at this website is a compilation of four records of the Highland Cemetery.

Mr. Gerald Mattson has provided most of the genealogical and historical data found on the cemetery registry pages. Mr. Mattson is author of Church of the Seven Mile Prairie: an early history of St. Joseph's Parish and the times and lives of its first parishioners including a history and record of the Highland Cemetery (Minnesota, 1982). The book is out of print. The Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), the Dakota County Historical Society, and the Dakota County Libraries have copies of the book. Long distance researchers may borrow the book through inter-library loan through the Dakota County Libraries. Researchers seeking limited information may be served by the Minnesota Historical Society. The Highland Cemetery section of Church on the Seven Mile Prairie is used with permission. In this website compilation, Mr. Mattson's work is noted as [GM DATA] and [GM NOTES].

Mr. Mattson, formerly the voluntary caretaker of the Highland Cemetery, remains a parishioner at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Rosemount, MN. He is also active with the Rosemount Area Historical Society.

Ms. Debbie Boe transcribed gravestone data at the Highland Cemetery in 1997. A print copy of her work, Dakota County cemetery transcriptions, Dakota County, Minnesota, cemetery monument transcriptions: City of Lakeville and Lakeville Township is on file at the MN Historical Society. Her work is used with permission. Long distance researchers may use the services of MHS to obtain a copy, wholly or in part. In this website compilation, her work is noted as [BOE 1997].

Mr. John Dalby, author of the Dalby database, compiles genealogical records as a hobby. Since the early 1980's, he has entered over 250,000 records for cemeteries in 10 Minnesota counties. Some of his work is published through Park Books and a larger portion of his work is on file with MN county historical societies. He donated his Highland Cemetery database on disk and hardcopy - his work is used with permission. Mr. Dalby obtained the Highland Cemetery data from a Catholic nun during the 1980's. His data mirrors that of Gerald Mattson with slight changes. Mr Dalby's work, shown in ALL CAPS , is noted as [JD DATA].

[STONE 1998] denotes my work partially transcribing Highland Cemetery gravestone data in 1998. My objective was to capture the entire text of the Highland Cemetery gravestones as a supplement to the work of earlier researchers. My visits coincided with the cemetery clean-up and is incomplete. At least one older full stone transcription was done: in 1976, students of St. Joseph's Elementary School made rubbings of the Highland Cemetery gravestones for a U.S. bi-centennial project. The parish office does not have these records. I would be grateful for any earlier transcriptions and will post them here. Contact sean@mtn.org.

I am very thankful to Mr. Gerald Mattson, Ms. Debbie Boe, and Mr. John Dalby for sharing their work and making it free and available on the internet.

Transcription records may not agree because of the age of inscriptions and difficulty reading stones. Any other errors on this website are solely my responsibility. Please advise.

I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of Rita Lace, Dakota County Coordinator for the GenWeb Tombstone Project; Kevin Geraghty, an Irish-American historian in St. Paul, Minnesota; Scott Kaufmann, caretaker of the Highland Cemetery; Marthe Arends, intermediate genealogy course instructor at Virtual University; and my mother-in-law and genealogist Jane Baxter Norblom. Carole Kalberer helped with recording tombstone inscriptions. My thanks to all.

Shawne Marie FitzGerald