[5] To help people find the graves of relatives, volunteers compiled a searchable database based on burial ledgers held by the New Jersey Historical Society.

[9] Since the 1960s and the urban decline of Newark, many of the descendants of the German immigrants and families buried here moved away from the city.

As early as the 1950s, and accelerating in the 1960s,[10][11] Woodland Cemetery experienced vandalism and the toppling of several thousand gravestones.

[15] In 2011, more than 80 volunteers spent two days picking up trash, cutting grass, and clearing branches, organized by the New Jersey Youth Corps and Greater Newark Conservancy.

[18] In 2013, the board of managers discussed plans for maintenance and finding additional funding, and they asked for help from volunteers.