In 2004 John Sterling and James Wheaton finished recording 13,886 gravestone inscriptions 203 cemeteries in South Kingstown and, through the Rhode Island Genealogical Society, published a book with their results. As with other towns in this project the first step was to find any early transcripts of the burial grounds.

For South Kingstown three were found. The earliest was an anonymous three-volume manuscript entitled A Visitation to the Cemeteries of Ancient Kingstowne recorded in 1880 and 1881 that is now at Rhode Island Historical Society Library. This transcript was attributed to George Harris by the library, but we have shown that it was actually the work of James Newell Arnold, who lived in North Kingstown at the time. Arnold recorded 265 burial locations, some containing only one unmarked grave. Some of these have been lost to 125 years of development in South Kingstown.  Second the Rhode Island state registration program was conducted from 1950 to 1990 to register the location of all historical cemeteries. While the state project did not record gravestones, it gave reasonably modern locations for the 97 cemeteries it covered. Third the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society’s Cemeteries in South Kingstown, Rhode Island published in 1979.

      These transcripts yielded about 2,500 gravestone inscriptions which were checked against the stones in the cemeteries, corrected when necessary and entered into the database. The book documents 13,886 gravestone inscriptions in 203 cemeteries in South Kingstown: 6,993 from the twentieth century, 3,917 from the nineteenth century, and 137 from the eighteenth century. Many plain fieldstones were found, including some of the oldest gravestones in South Kingstown, 144 inscribed fieldstones, 122 slate markers, 2,620 marble gravestones from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and 6,797 granite gravestone inscriptions from the twentieth century.

      1467 death records were extracted from Nailer Tom’s Diary and were used to construct records for the two Quaker cemeteries in town. Many of the Quaker gravestones are unmarked fieldstones. Daniel Stedman’s Journal 1826-1859 published in 2003 by the Rhode Island Genealogical Society was used to identify several unmarked burials and a couple of unrecorded cemeteries.

      Maps and directions to each cemetery were developed for the database and for the book. The GPS coordinates were measured for each cemetery so that they can be accurately located since many are far from the road.

 The following surnames appear on at least ten gravestones, bold type indicating twenty or more individuals.

 Adams, Albro, Aldrich, Allen, Andersen / Anderson, Andrew/Andrews, Anthony, Armstrong, Arnold, Atteridge/Attridge, Austin, Babcock, Baker, Bannister, Barber, Barker, Barrington, Baton, Bell, Billington, Blanchard, Bliss, Bliven, Boisvert, Boldt, Booth, Boss, Bradley, Braman/Brayman, Brennan, Briggs, Bristow, Brown/Browne, Browning, Burdick, Burns, Calitri, Campbell, Card, Carpenter, Carr, Case, Casey, Cassidy, Caswell, Champlin, Chappell, Church, Clark/Clarke, Clemens, Collins, Congdon, Cook/Cooke, Cornell, Costanza, Cottrell, Crandall, Curtis/Curtiss, Davis, Dawley, Desista, Dibiasio, Dimon, Disalvo, Dixon, Doane, Dobson, Dockray, Doherty, Dolan, Donahoe/Donahue, Donelly/Donnelly, Drake, Dugan, Easterbrooks, Eaton, Eccleston, Eddy, Edwards, Egan, Eldred, Emmett, Essex, Evans, Fagan, Fayerweather, Ferraro, Fitzgerald, Fortin, Foster, Fowler, French, Gadrow, Gardiner/Gardner, Gavitt, Gilbert, Goddard, Gough, Gould, Gray, Green/Greene, Greenman, Griffin, Grillo, Grinell/Grinnel/Grinnell/Grinol, Hall, Hanson, Harrall, Harrower, Harvey, Hasard/Haszard/Hazard, Hathaway, Healey/Healy, Helme, Holberton, Holgate, Holland, Holley, Holloway, Hopkins, Houston, Howard, Hoxie/Hoxsie, Hoyle, Hull, Hunt, Jackson, James, Jaquays, Jaques, Johnson, Jones, Kelleher, Kelley/Kelly, Kenyon/Kinyon, King, Kinnecom/Kinnecome, Kinney, Kissoth/Kissouth, Knight, Knowles, Kroener, Lariviere, Larkin, Lawton, Leslie, Lewis, Lillibridge, Littlefield, Lock/Locke, Lynch, Lyons, MacNaughton, Mahon, Maine, Marchant, Martella, Matterson/Matteson, May, Mcardle, McCue, McCulloch, McGrath, McNally, McNulty, Mello, Mellor, Miller, Mills, Mitchell, Molloy, Monahan, Monroe, Moore, Morgan, Mullen, Mumford, Murray, Nichols, Nigrelli, Noka, Northup, Noyes, Nye, O’Brien, O’Hara, O’Neal/O’Neil/O’Neill, Oakley, Palmer, Partelow, Pearce / Pearse / Pierce, Peckham, Perkins, Perry, Philips/Phillips, Pollack/Pollock, Potter, Priday, Quigley, Quinlan, Quinn, Rathbon/Rathbun/Rathburn, Reed, Reels, Reynolds, Richmond, Roberts, Robinson, Rodman, Rogers, Rose, Ryan, Salzer, Saunders, Schaeffer, Segar, Sekater/Sekator, Shannon, Sheldon, Sherman, Signorelli, Simms/Sims, Sisson, Slocum, Smith, Southwick, Stanton, Steadman/Stedman, Stone, Streeter, Sullivan, Sweet, Taber, Tanner, Taylor, Tefft, Thomas, Thompson, Totten, Tourgee/Tourjee, Tucker, Turrisi, Underwood, Walker, Walmsley, Watson, Watts, Webb, Webster, Weeden, Wells, Westcott, Whaley/Whalley, White, Whitford, Wilbur, Wilcox, Wilder, Williams, Willis, Wilson,Wood, Woodmancy / Woodmansee / Woodmansie, Wright, Yemma, Yost, Young