To find an individual's burial place in cemeteries and/or cemetery records, you must at least know the individual's name at time of death and possible areas where the individual may have been buried. If you do not have the minimum information to locate a cemetery record, you can either:

Get help finding some of the minimum information by selecting the following item,

Name

click the Back button on your browser to return to the list of other places where you can find burial places, or

read the paragraph below for additional tips.

Finding cemetery records

Occasionally you can find indexed cemetery records. These indexes provide you with a convenient way to find out whether or not your ancestor is in a particular cemetery. Check with libraries and genealogy societies in the area -- they may know if any indexes exist for the records that you need.

Genealogy.com, Inc. also has Family Archives containing cemetery records. The FamilyFinder Index, a feature of Family Tree Maker software and also available for searching at FamilyTreeMaker.com, is an index of over 220 million names from census records, marriage records, Social Security death records, actual family trees, and more. This feature can help you by telling you if your ancestor's name is actually listed on one of the cemetery CDs Genealogy.com sells. Using the FamilyFinder Index couldn't be easier -- all you need to do is enter the names of your ancestors right into your own computer. If the FamilyFinder Index tells you that your ancestors are listed, then it's simple to locate your ancestor's record. For more information about FamilyFinder, or for information about purchasing CD-ROM indexes, see the topic All about FamilyFinder.

Finding places of burial

Another place to check for a death date is a funeral home, because they often keep records about each individual that they deal with. Try calling several funeral homes in the area where your ancestor lived. You can get the names of funeral homes either through the phone book or the American Blue Book of Funeral Directors, published in New York by the National Funeral Directors' Association. This book may be available through local community libraries and genealogical libraries. The funeral homes you contact may have records about your ancestor, or may be able to tell you the names of funeral homes that existed when your ancestor lived in the area.

Make sure you check scrapbooks, diaries, and family Bibles at home. See the topic Finding information at home for more information.

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