Baldwin County · Eastern Shore
The D'Olive Cemetery
A quiet acre of Baldwin County ground where six generations of D'Olive family members rest — the oldest private family cemetery on the Eastern Shore still bearing its original name.
Where the Family Rests
The D'Olive family cemetery sits on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay in Baldwin County, Alabama — on land that was once part of the original 1787 Spanish land grant received by Dominique D'Olive. It is one of the oldest private family burial grounds in the region, and among the few that still carry the name of the family that established it.
The cemetery is not a grand monument. It is a working family ground — modest, shaded, and rooted in the same soil that Dominique first cleared more than two centuries ago. Its value lies not in its size but in its continuity: generation after generation of D'Olive family members have been laid to rest here, and the ground itself is a document of the family's presence on the Eastern Shore.
Eastern Shore · Baldwin County, Alabama
Preservation & Access
Status
Private family cemetery — access by arrangement
County
Baldwin County, Alabama
Established
c. 1803 (following Dominique D'Olive's death)
Documentation
Ongoing — D'Olive Family Heritage archive
Earliest Known Interment
Louis D'Olive, son of Dominique, c. 1840s
Named Waters Nearby
D'Olive Creek · D'Olive Bay
The D'Olive family cemetery is private property. Access is by family arrangement only. The D'Olive Family Heritage project is actively working to document, photograph, and preserve the cemetery's markers and records before further deterioration occurs.
If you are a D'Olive family researcher with information about interments, marker inscriptions, or the cemetery's physical condition, the family archive welcomes your contribution. Genealogical records, photographs, and firsthand accounts are all valuable to the preservation effort.
For Family Researchers
If you have information about interments, marker inscriptions, or the cemetery's physical condition, the D'Olive Family Heritage archive welcomes your contribution.
Known Interments
The following family members are among those known to be interred in the D'Olive family cemetery. The record is incomplete — many early markers have been lost to time, weather, and the encroachment of vegetation — but the family archive continues to document what is known.
Louis Bernard D'Olive
Son of Dominique D'Olive
February 15, 1773 – 1841
Eldest son of Dominique and Marie Louise Baudin. Received a portion of the original land grant and continued farming the Eastern Shore property. The Jackson's Oak memorial inscription honors his memory.
Sefroy D'Olive
Son of Dominique D'Olive
c. 1775 – unknown
Second son of Dominique. Remained on the Eastern Shore and contributed to the early settlement of what would become Baldwin County.
Silas Sedoin D'Olive
3rd Great-Grandfather
c. 1820s – c. 1890s
Among the earliest generations born on American soil. His portrait is preserved in the family archive — one of the oldest photographic records of the D'Olive line.
Ruben H.L. D'Olive
4th Great-Grandfather
c. 1840s – c. 1910s
Continued the family's presence on the Eastern Shore through the Civil War era and into the early twentieth century.
Joseph Morgan D'Olive
Great-Great-Grandfather
c. 1870s – c. 1940s
Photographed with his wife in a formal portrait preserved in the family archive. Represents the transition generation between the nineteenth and twentieth century D'Olive family.
Edward D. D'Olive
Great-Grandfather
c. 1895 – c. 1960s
Photographed with Mattie Kane D'Olive. His generation saw Baldwin County transform from a rural agricultural community into a growing suburban county.
Dominique's Burial
Dominique D'Olive himself is not buried on the Eastern Shore. He died on December 2, 1803, in Mobile and was buried at the campo santo of that city — the ground upon which the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was later erected. His remains were subsequently transferred to the Church Street Graveyard in Mobile, where founders and important figures of the city are also interred.
The Eastern Shore cemetery was established by his sons and daughters in the years following his death, as the family continued to farm and build on the land grant property. It is, in a sense, the continuation of Dominique's legacy — the ground he claimed, tended by the children he raised, and held by the family he founded.
Church Street Graveyard · Mobile, Alabama
Church Street Graveyard, Mobile
Dominique D'Olive's final resting place is the Church Street Graveyard in Mobile, Alabama — one of the oldest cemeteries in the city and the burial ground of many of Mobile's founders and most distinguished citizens. Among those interred there are Joe Cain, the father of Mobile's Mardi Gras tradition, and Julian Lee Rayford, the historian and artist who documented the city's early history. Dominique rests in distinguished company.
Church Street Graveyard, Mobile, Alabama
Two Centuries of Rest
Dominique Dies in Mobile
Dominique D'Olive dies on December 2, 1803, and is buried at the campo santo in Mobile. His sons and daughters continue to hold and farm the Eastern Shore land grant.
Eastern Shore Cemetery Established
The D'Olive family establishes a private burial ground on the Eastern Shore land grant property. The first interments are believed to be family members who died in the decade following Dominique's death.
American Territory
The United States takes possession of Mobile and the surrounding territory. The D'Olive land — and the family cemetery on it — is recognized under American law.
Alabama Statehood
Alabama enters the Union. Baldwin County is organized, and the D'Olive cemetery becomes part of the county's earliest documented burial grounds.
Generations Laid to Rest
Silas Sedoin D'Olive, Ruben H.L. D'Olive, and their descendants are interred in the family cemetery across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Documentation Ongoing
The D'Olive Family Heritage project is actively documenting the cemetery's markers, records, and physical condition. The ground remains private family property on the Eastern Shore.