Cemeteries can be classified by their purpose, status, and administration.
R.S. 8: 1 (22) "Family burial ground" means a cemetery in which no lots are sold to the public and in which interments are restricted to a group of persons related to each other by blood or marriage.
The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) National Cemetery Administration maintains 136 national cemeteries in 40 states (and Puerto Rico) as well as 33 soldier's lots and monument sites. They manage four national cemeteries in Louisiana: Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Port Hudson. The National Park Service manages 14 national cemeteries, including Chalmette National Cemetery.
Louisiana has many cemeteries listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including the Asphodel Plantation and Cemetery, Magnolia Cemetery, and Istre Cemetery Grave Houses.
R.S. 8: 1 (23) "Fraternal cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by any fraternal organization or auxiliary organization thereof, in which the sale of lots, graves, crypts, vaults or niches is restricted principally to its members.
R.S 8: 1 (36) "Privately owned cemetery" means any cemetery except a fraternal, municipal, or religious cemetery or a family burial ground.
R.S. 8: 1 (37) "Religious cemetery" means a cemetery that is owned, operated, controlled or managed by a recognized church, religious society, association or denomination, or by a cemetery authority or a corporation administering or through which is administered the temporalities of any recognized church, religious society, association or denomination.
R.S. 8: 1 (31) "Municipal cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled or managed by a municipality or other political subdivision of the state, or instrumentality thereof authorized by law to own, operate or manage a cemetery.
Many states have established state veterans cemeteries. Eligibility is similar to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) national cemeteries, but may include residency requirements. Even though they may have been established or improved with Government funds through VA's Veterans Cemetery Grants Program, state veterans cemeteries are run solely by the states. Louisiana has four: Northwest Louisiana Veterans Cemetery, Central Louisiana Veterans Cemetery, Northeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery, and Southeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery. Louisiana's division of administration manages the Camp Moore Confederate Cemetery. The State Art, Historical, and Cultural Preservation Agency manages the Clinton Confederate Memorial Cemetery and the Jackson Confederate Memorial Cemetery.
