My name is Roland Koski with the nickname “Foo” and a 79-year old lifetime resident of Negaunee. Cemetery and genealogy were never priorities of in my younger days. After serving in the Navy from 1963-67 and then being an employee as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service for the next 25 years, I retired at the early age of 48. In 1995, I was hired by the City of Negaunee to supervise the summer workers at the cemetery for the daily upkeep of mowing and weeding the surrounding area. During this period, I noticed that all of the cemetery burial records were hand written in the log books and very hard to read. I thought it would be a nice hobby to take the challenge and get these records on a computerized program. In 1997, I was given permission to begin my project with a Cemetery Sexton program which would record all of my (unofficial) 18,628 burials that are recorded as of December 31, 2022. I have actually gone through the cemetery and recorded all of the markings (names and dates) from each monument and marker located. I have researched obituaries from “Negaunee Iron Herald” weekly newspapers since the first issue in November 1873 through the final issue on August 28, 1968. Since that time, I have been researching obituaries from “The Mining Journal”. For the past eighteen years, I have cut out and filed copies of Negaunee obituaries recorded in newspapers and from funeral home records. 
This webpage become a reality because of the thoughtfulness and monetary gift from J Craig and Barbara Kirkpatrick from Minnesota back in 2013. I guess I had provided them with a large amount of information on their family tree with my research. To show their appreciation, the monetary gift was donated to the Negaunee Historical Society with the stipulation that it be used for my future plans of opening a webpage for the Negaunee Cemetery burials for anyone seeking information of distant relatives. Six years later, I am so happy that my endeavors and patience will finally bear fruit. I have many other acknowledgements in appreciation in my research also. This webpage has been put together by 906 Technologies and my mentor, Eric Minaker. I would like to thank Robert Dobson for gathering information from his “Iron Herald Notes” CD; to the City of Negaunee and the cemetery sextons for all of the information they have provided for me over the years; to the Negaunee Historical Society for the use of the museum to research my obituaries from the “Negaunee Iron Heralds” and many other records and files located there; to Rosemary Michelin and the Marquette Regional History Center for their support over the years; to Brian Maki (Maki Consulting) for transferring all of the data from my outdated DOS Computer Program to my new Microsoft Office Pro Edition 2019. The local funeral homes have provided me with information when in need. I also want to thank Gregg Conradson who is following in my footsteps in researching the vast amount of information for families and recording them for my research. Finally, I want to thank my wife Barbara and family for putting up with my continuous conversations regarding my cemetery research over the years. It’s been a very interesting and fulfilling 25 years of retirement doing cemetery research for my family and for others. Individuals can also review some of my research on the “Find a Grave” website. As I mentioned earlier, the information that I have provided in these records are NOT OFFICIAL. Mistakes have been made throughout and dates are missing or incorrect. Please contact me at kipfoo@charter.net for any suggested corrections. All comments are welcomed.