Tennessee Valley Authority Cemetery Records

The flooding of the areas and construction on the Cherokee and Douglas dams forced a number of graves to be removed and relocated by TVA. Before this was done, TVA generated a number of records as to where the graves had been located as well as their new locations. The Tennessee Valley Authority Cemetery Records contain information on TVA grave removals and cemetery data for both the Cherokee Reservoir and Douglas Reservoir areas in East Tennessee. Included in the collection are a number of land acquisition and preliminary land ownership maps, and maps detailing cemeteries before grave removal at both Cherokee Reservoir and Douglas Reservoir. The collection includes photocopies of Cherokee Dam construction photographs and an index to negatives that are stored in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) branch in Georgia. The collection was created by Donald Heiss through years of research that led to his book Family Histories: Lives Lost, Lives Found, Lives Honored Again! The collection covers the period of 1941-2003, with some undated materials.