The graveyard began as an agreement between two young men, Thomas Jefferson and Dabney Carr, who were schoolmates and friends. They agreed that they would be buried under a great oak which stood here. Carr, who married Jefferson's sister, died in 1773. His was the first grave on this site, which Jefferson laid out as a family burying ground. Jefferson was buried here in 1826.
The present monument is not the original, designed by Jefferson, but a larger one erected by the United States in 1883. Its base covers the graves of Jefferson, his wife, his two daughters, and of Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, his son-in-law. The graveyard remains the property of Jefferson's descendants, and continues as a family burying ground.
The Monticello Association was founded to care, preserve and continue the family graveyard at Monticello. It is a non-profit organization whose members include the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson.