How Can I Find Where Someone Is Buried

by Donna Streetenberger

Accept you taken the time to find the gravesite of each of your ancestors? If you haven't, y'all could be missing a key part of your genealogy puzzle. Although we may spend years trying to find records that were created throughout our ancestors' lives, it is sometimes the information nigh their deaths that can be the almost revealing.

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This can exist particularly truthful when searching for your ancestors' burial sites considering the journeying of discovery can turn upward some very interesting details. Luckily, there are many resources available to help you lot notice how your ancestor died, where they were cached and to locate their headstone and related records. In the following article nosotros comprehend how to find a grave's location using various records and how to search cemeteries online.

Use Online Cemetery Search Engines to Find a Gravesite for Your Ancestor

Online cemetery search sites are the identify to first if you already know where your ancestor was buried. If you do non, yous may take a hard time determining which entry matches your ancestor due to the express information sometimes bachelor.

Have some fourth dimension to endeavour and discover out where your ancestor was buried before earthworks through these records. If y'all need help finding this data delight read the sections nigh the finish of this article on using expiry certificates and newspapers for this purpose.

Cemetery search engines accept been around nearly since the beginning of the internet, and then they now have an incredible collection of information. Discover a Grave and Billion Graves are two great places to begin because they both contain user contributed (or crowdsourced) information and both sites at present have hundreds of millions of records. Simply at that place are other options too. Let's take a look start at the most popular sites.

Find a Grave

The near well-known gratis site with records from cemeteries around the world is Discover a Grave – also known simply every bit findagrave. It began in 1995 and at present has over 170 meg memorials.

To search for your ancestor for free at Find a Grave:

Go to www.Findagrave.com
Enter the first name (if known) and the terminal proper name of your antecedent. The last name is required.
Enter any additional data, if known, such as year of nascence and the place your ancestor may exist buried. If y'all don't know this information, only leave the field bare.For the example beneath, the death date entered was before 1940 by using the "down arrow" and selecting "Before". The place of expiry is Texas.

At present printing enter, or click the search push button, and a list of the results will be displayed.In this example, FindaGrave had 101 matching records for Alice Smith who died in Texas earlier 1940.

Scroll through the results to search for your antecedent and click on their proper noun to display their information. Or, utilize the "Refine Search" link, at the top of the folio, to narrow your results.

The "Alice Smith" used for our example was Alice A. McLain Smith. Her cemetery information is shown below.

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The information for Alice McLain Smith not only gives her burial location but too gives a wealth of information about her also as her directly and extended family. The other family members are shown equally "Calculated Relationships" based on nascency and death dates.

Not all memorials accept photos of tombstones. Nevertheless, yous can request a photograph past clicking the "request photo" push button. You will need to sign-in, or sign-upwardly, earlier the photograph request tin can be made.

Note: The information generated past Find a Grave varies based on the information provided past contributors. The cemetery data is not always displayed. Some memorials are created by contributors even though the burial data for an ancestor is still unknown. Find a Grave's website states that "thousands of contributors submit new listings, updates, corrections, photographs and virtual flowers every 60 minutes." Then, e'er verify whatever information you may notice. If you find incorrect information regarding your ancestor you lot can suggest edits by using the "Suggest Edits" push button.

Billion Graves

Billion Graves, co-ordinate to their website, "is the world′south largest resource for searchable GPS cemetery data." The information found on their website is generated by users, with the Billion Graves app, who create GPS data for burial locations. The information is uploaded to the Billion Graves website where those accessing the site can attempt to locate the specific location of their ancestor's resting place.

To search Billion Graves for free:

Go to www.BillionGraves.com
Enter the commencement name (if known) and the final name of your ancestor equally well every bit whatsoever other information yous may already know.

Click the "Search" button.The following information is displayed:

The information for Alice Smith at Billion Graves is not every bit informative as what was found at Find a Grave, but the site does say that more than information is bachelor for a yearly fee.

Interment.cyberspace

Another cemetery search engine, which is not based on user-contributed data, is Interment.internet. Information technology is, according to their website, "an online archive of transcriptions that spans tens of thousands of cemeteries beyond the globe." Their data is sourced from authorities entities, churches and genealogy and historical groups.

To search Interment.net:

Go to www.Interment.net
Enter the proper name of your ancestor. You may likewise utilize the last known location of the deceased to help narrow your search.
Click the search button.

A list of records containing Alice Smith every bit well every bit, Falls, County, and Texas is displayed.

Click on the details that appear to take your ancestors information (if any). The following information was displayed for Alice Smith, showing the specific location of her burial, forth with other Smith family unit members buried in the same cemetery.

Employ Google Searches for Cemetery Information

Besides cemetery search engines, at that place are other records available online that tin can aid you find a gravesite – if you lot have an idea of where your antecedent may have been buried. These can be found through a Google search.

Go to world wide web.Google.com
Enter the kickoff and final name of your antecedent, the urban center or county you think they may be buried in, and the word, "cemetery" and click search.

Results similar to the post-obit data is displayed:

In this example, the last consequence on Google, for USGW Athenaeum , is another cemetery listing showing the burial place for Alice Smith.

Note: You will likely need to get creative to find the information you need so we suggest reading this article near maximizing your Google search to help.

Death-Related Records to Help Yous Locate a Grave

Many death-related records can provide data to help yous detect a gravesite. The burial location for your ancestor can often be found in the post-obit records:

Decease Certificates

Some death certificates can be accessed for free at FamilySearch.org , while others can be obtained through the county clerk'south office. Be aware that death certificates are generated in the state where a expiry occurred . Also, while some states began creating decease certificates by 1900, they weren't widely mandated until the 1930's.

Below is the death document for Alice Ann Smith institute at FamilySearch.org. This death certificate does non specifically list the cemetery where Alice Smith was buried but does show the town, of Lott, [Texas] where the burying took place.

Newspaper Obituaries

Newspaper obituaries tin be first-class resource for burial locations. One of the best gratis sources for newspapers is Chronicling America , from the Library of Congress, which has digitized newspapers from 1789 to 1963.

Google also has an extensive, free newspaper annal , which we covered briefly in our quick guide to finding free newspaper collections.

The summit subscription-based websites for newspaper obituaries include Genealogy Bank and Newspapers.com .

Additional records that will list when and where (urban center, county, and/or state) a burial took place include:

Social Security Death Records – For deaths after 1935. Access for free at FamilySearch.org.
U.South. Demography Mortality Schedules – For deaths 1850-1880. Read more virtually this important resource hither.
U.Southward. Veterans' Gravesites Records 1775-2006 – If your ancestor was a veteran. Paid subscription through Ancestry.com.

Funeral Homes and Churches

Once you know where a death possibly occurred, you lot can contact mortuary or funeral homes and/or local churches your ancestor might have attended to ask about their death records. Oftentimes, people at churches and funeral homes can be the best source of information.

For ancestors who died between 1700–1900, their local mercantile shop may have provided the funeral arrangements. Many current solar day funeral homes that accept been in being for over i hundred years, started out in a mercantile shop offering caskets and other funeral-related accessories. Many of those records are no longer available, just some funeral homes may still have records from over a century ago that were transferred to a local museum or other archival facilities.

Other resources, if you're lucky enough to observe them in your attic, or through family members, include:

A Family Bible
The Deceased's Funeral Programme and/or Funeral Home Invitee Book

Getting Fix To Visit a Gravesite

No thing where y'all end up finding data regarding your antecedent's resting identify, keep in mind that if the burial occurred more a century ago, finding the actual cemetery and/or gravesite may be harder than y'all think.

Unfortunately, while some burial records have been preserved well over the centuries, some actual burial grounds have not. Some cemeteries, peculiarly those in larger cities, may have been moved to other locations so it'due south important to do thorough research prior to attempting to visit your ancestor's grave.

If you lot're certain that the physical gravesite still exists, plan your trip accordingly. Apply a good mapping software to ensure you brand it to your destination and follow the rules and regulations of the cemetery. Depending on the fourth dimension of year and location of the cemetery, watch out for snakes and insects – and, of form, be respectful of others who may be visiting the cemetery.

The journey to observe the final resting place of your ancestor tin can leave you with a deeper bail to those who came before you and provide many more connections on your family unit tree. If you have utilized all the available resource to observe a family unit fellow member's gravesite and have non been successful, don't surrender. In genealogy, many records are still only waiting to be discovered.

Important Read: Planning a Cemetery Visit? Dos and Don'ts to Read Earlier Yous Go

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Donna Streetenberger is a professional genealogist and freelance author . She has enjoyed helping people find their elusive ancestors for over 20 years. With a background in technical writing, she enjoys old world genealogy research coupled with new technology. She has published numerous manufactures, online and in print, well-nigh genealogy research and history. Find her at www.Researchin g Ancestry.com .