Where is my ancestor buried?

Begin with the death itself

If your ancestor died after their state began recording deaths, the death certificate is your best first step. Most certificates have a line for burial, cremation or removal, with the name of the cemetery, the town and the date, and a line for the undertaker or funeral director. Statewide registration began at very different times, from the 1850s in a few states to the 1910s or later in others, so first check when your ancestor's state started; our state guides give the date.

The undertaker named on the certificate is your next lead. Funeral home records, when they survive, can give the cemetery, the lot or grave number, who paid for the funeral and sometimes the names of the parents. Many old firms were bought by newer ones, and their ledgers went with them, so call the funeral home that now operates in that town and ask politely.

Obituaries and death notices in the local paper usually say where the service was held and where burial took place, sometimes adding that the body was taken by train to the old home town. A card of thanks printed a week later can confirm the same family.

Church registers and cemetery offices

Many churches kept a burial register alongside baptisms and marriages, and a churchyard or parish cemetery may have its own book of lots. If your family belonged to a congregation, write to the church or to the archive of its denomination. The register may give the date of burial, the age, and sometimes the cause of death.

Town and city cemeteries often had a sexton, the person who dug the graves and kept the burial book. Sexton's records and cemetery office files, sometimes called interment records or lot books, show who owned each lot and who was buried in it. A lot bought by a grandfather may hold children who died young and never had a stone, so always ask for everyone buried in the lot, not only your ancestor.

Surveys made by earlier researchers

Long before websites, people walked cemeteries and copied stones. County historical and genealogical societies published cemetery books for whole counties, and many state libraries hold the typed copies. These are precious when a stone has since broken or worn smooth.

During the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration, later the Work Projects Administration, paid workers in several states to survey cemeteries. In Connecticut, a W.P.A. project directed by Charles R. Hale recorded headstone inscriptions in over 2,000 cemeteries around 1932 to 1935, and the Connecticut State Library holds the volumes and index. Other WPA projects registered the graves of veterans. Mississippi's state-wide project, for example, surveyed every cemetery in each county for the graves of veterans of all wars. Ask your state archives whether a similar survey was done where your ancestor lived.

Veterans have extra paper trails

The Department of Veterans Affairs runs the Nationwide Gravesite Locator, a free search of burials in VA national cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries and some other military cemeteries. It also covers veterans in private cemeteries, but only when the grave has a government marker, and the VA says it has no information on such private burials before 1997. So an older veteran in a hometown cemetery will usually not appear there.

For older veterans, turn to headstone records. From about 1879 to 1903, the government supplied stones for Union Civil War veterans buried in private cemeteries, and the National Archives holds more than 166,000 cards for these contracts (microfilm M1845). Each card can give the soldier's company and regiment, the cemetery's name, the town, county and state, a grave number and the date of death. Later applications for government headstones are at the National Archives too: those from 1925 to 1941 are on microfilm M1916, part of a series that runs to 1963, and each form names the cemetery and the person who applied for the stone.

If you see an upright white marble stone with a slightly rounded top and a sunken shield carved on its face, with the name, company and regiment inside, it is probably a government stone. This shield design was first used in 1873 for Union soldiers and from 1879 in private cemeteries too, so it is a clue that a headstone record exists.

Family burial grounds on the farm

In rural America, many families buried their dead on their own land, in a small plot near the house or on a rise in a field. These graveyards often have no office, no records and sometimes no standing stones, and when the farm was sold they could be forgotten.

Land records are the way back to them. Follow the farm through the deeds at the county recorder's office, using the grantor and grantee index. A deed may reserve or except a family graveyard from the sale, sometimes with its size and a right of way to reach it. Surveys and plats may mark a burying ground, and later county maps sometimes show a small cross. Once you know which tract it was, the county's cemetery survey, a local historical society, or the present owner may be able to show you what remains. Always ask permission before you walk onto private land.