Daily AncestorFrom obituary to funeral home
Find one ancestor's obituary or death notice, note the funeral home it names, and find out whether that firm's records survive.
Funeral home records can hold parents' names, survivors and the burial place, details often missing from the certificate and the newspaper. You need the firm's name before you can look.
Your steps this week
- Pin down the date and place of death, then search the papers from that day through the following week.
- Copy the notice with the paper's name, date and page, and list every relative named.
- Write down the funeral home, or find it on the death certificate.
- Check whether the firm still operates, and search the state library, archives and nearby universities under its name.
- Look for a published index from the local library or genealogical society, then ask for the original entry.