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and Mortuary Records
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When you don't know where a person is buried, ask relatives for the information. If they can't help you, death certificates and obituary notices should state the place of internment and name the undertaker. |
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Cemeteries have been relocated to make way for highways, dams, and buildings. Check with the county registrar of deeds or local historical and genealogical societies to find out where graves have been relocated. Also ask if they compiled an inventory of the old cemetery. |
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Photograph tombstones whenever possible to avoid transcription errors. Make sure the writing on a stone will be legible enough to read in a one-dimensional photograph. When a tombstone is hard to read with the naked eye, write down the inscription and photograph it. Proofread everything you write to ensure accuracy! |
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Copy every word on a tombstone or grave marker! Names and dates are important, but other information may contain valuable clues, such as religious affiliation, military service, or place of birth, that point toward other records and places to continue research. |
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Tombstone inscriptions for thousands of cemeteries have been transcribed and published as "cemetery records". The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah has the largest collection of cemetery records available in the United States. |
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By copying or photographing only the tombstones of direct-line
ancestors (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents), you
may be overlooking information about other relatives that
may be needed later. Sketch the shape and arrangement of the
burial plots of your ancestors and those nearby. Then
photograph and transcibe each stone. It may seem like a
waste of time, but if you don't live close enough to visit
the cemetery routinely, you won't regret taking the time.
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Burek, Deborah, ed. Cemeteries of the United States. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1994. Carmack, Sharon DeBartolo. "Carved in Stone: composition and Durability of Stone Gravemakers." National Genealogical Society Newsletter 17, (May-June 1991): 69-70. |
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_______, "There's More Here Than Meets the Eye:
A Closer Look at Cemetery Research and Transcribing
Projects."
Federated Genealogical Societies Forum
7 (3) (Fall 1995).
Cerny, Johni. "Research in Birth, Death, and Cemetery Records," The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, eds., Rev. ed., Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 1997: 71-84. |
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Farber, Daniel and Jesse Farber.
Making Photographic Records of Gravestones.
Leaflet available from Association for
Gravestone Studies, 30 Elm Street, Worcester, MA 01609.
Vallentine, John F. "Locating the Correct Cemetery." Genealogical Journal 4 (1075): 107-109.
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