PLOT RECONSTRUCTION AND DATA RULES

This archive is an initial recovery package, not a complete burial register, certified record set, title opinion, or survey of grave locations. The statement that association records were lost was supplied by the requester; loss scope has not been independently verified.

1. Start with the complete Hale 211-10 survey in its original order. Keep printed page number and transcription sequence. A section heading is not a grave coordinate. Hale records visible inscriptions circa 1934 and may omit unmarked burials, lost markers, and later interments.
2. Match each person across independently held records: marker photographs, Hale, official death records, burial/sexton returns, funeral ledgers, newspapers, lot deeds and probate papers. A planned funeral or interment notice is not proof that interment occurred.
3. Preserve literal spellings and partial dates. Leave blanks unknown. Do not calculate an exact birth date from an approximate age. Retain contradictory readings and cite each source. OCR is a finding aid, not a verified transcription.
4. Keep memorials distinct from actual interments; a marker can commemorate someone buried elsewhere. Do not assume spouses share a lot or that listed relatives are buried here.
5. Photograph each marker front, back, sides, base and surrounding row; assign an observation ID and record date, photographer, direction and adjacent marker IDs. Record location accuracy along with GPS. Photograph before any intervention; do not move stones to fit a proposed map.
6. Keep provisional field grid coordinates separate from historical lot numbers. Match a recovered plan only using a documented scale, orientation, fixed features and multiple independently verified markers. Have the relevant custodian and a qualified survey/conservation professional review the reconstruction before operational use.
7. A vacant-looking surface does not establish an empty plot. No reliable inventory of unmarked graves or available lots has been recovered here.
8. Request disinterment/reinterment records and lot transfers. Do not publish a definitive grave location or ownership claim on the basis of this package alone.

EVIDENCE LABELS
Historical burial reference: explicit statement in a downloaded historical publication; original civil evidence still needed.
Historical burial reference — context: town association depends partly on adjacent biography context.
Selected Hale transcription: a modern selected extract of the 1934 survey; complete original survey not yet inspected.
Search-index lead: facts visible in indexed Find a Grave/WikiTree search results; source page/marker image not retrieved. Treat as a lead.
Obituary transcription — planned burial: secondary transcription states intended interment; completed burial not verified.
Meriden death index: official index row with no cemetery information; never count it as a West Cemetery burial without other evidence.

RIGHTS AND HANDLING
The included 1902 and 1906 book pages are public-domain historical material in the United States. Original scans and OCR are preserved without generative alteration. Modern memorial descriptions, headstone photographs and later newspaper articles are linked rather than reproduced wholesale. The Nellie Baker notice is represented by a factual abstract and its transcription link. Verify reproduction terms for later additions and retain contributor credits.

FILES AND SEARCH
Unzip the entire package before opening START_HERE.html. Search is local and works without an internet connection; source links need the internet. Select Cemetery references, Meriden death index, Historical scans, or Source catalog. Search terms are combined with AND; punctuation and accents are ignored. The page displays 100 results at a time. Blank date fields mean unknown.
The Excel workbook is editable. The HTML search data is a snapshot: editing the workbook does not update the HTML automatically. Preserve the original package; submit new records or an edited workbook for a reconciled new edition.
The SQLite database contains cemetery_records, death_index, source_catalog and historical_documents, plus full-text search tables. JSON files preserve the raw downloadable records. SHA256SUMS.txt provides file integrity checks.
