Indiana was a stopping-off place for countless pioneers on their way west to Illinois, Iowa, Kansas or Oregon. Some travelers paused only long enough to tend the sick and to bury their dead before hurrying westward while others, who could not stand the thought of burying and leaving their loved ones in strange territory, decided to stay and became the core of Hancock County's early settlements. In this book of tombstone inscriptions, 92 cemeteries are included, most of which are of the family, church and neighborhood variety; many family relationships are carved into these stones. They run the gamut in size from one lonely stone in a field to thousands of stones in the larger cemeteries still in use today. Ten sources were researched and countless persons interviewed to locate and collect information for the included brief histories written about neighborhoods, cemeteries and adjacent church congregations which "went down." Current maps show the exact location of all cemeteries. Nearly forty photographs of unusual and rare gravemarkers enhance the text, and a surname index facilitates checking for people by name. This major work is a valuable tool for all genealogists, historians and others concerned about burials of early settlers in Hancock County, Indiana. The author is a genealogy veteran with 23 years experience as a professional Certified Genealogical Record Searcher. She is the secretary of the Hancock County Historical Society, and a member of the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana Association of Historians.