Tewksbury Public Library

RESEARCHING CEMETERY RECORDS

Autopsy records Bible records

Bodies in transit Burial permits

Wills, administrations, and probate

Coroners’ records

Death certificates Death registers

Funeral, memorial, and prayer cards

Funeral home records

Institutional records Mortality schedules

Monument makers’ records Necrologies

Obituaries and death notices Social Security Death Index

RECORDS OF DEATH

Autopsy Records• Modern death certificates may include information as to whether or not an autopsy was done.

• In order to access these records you must be able to prove that you are next of kin.

• Autopsies are usually performed when the cause of death is uncertain, questionable or suspicious.

Bible Records• It is rare that a family Bible will include a place of burial, but they most often include a place of death.

• If you are uncertain if a family Bible exists:- Ask your relatives, even the far reaching

ones.- Check the internet

• http://www.biblerecords.com/• http://www.cyndislist.com/bibles• http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/

Body in Transit/Burial Permits• Permits are needed when relocating or burying a body.

• Records for transportation and burial are more common in the 20th century.

• For deaths at sea, information was sometimes recorded in passenger lists. They are listed sometimes next to the original record or on the last page.

Coroners’ records• If a death occurred as a result of uncertain or unusual circumstances then a coroners' report may be available.

• Coroner and medical examiner files are available to the legal next of kin and those with written permission from the next of kin from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

Death Certificates/Death Registers

• Death certificates are statewide official documents that record people’s deaths.

The states began collecting this information in different years. Massachusetts started in

1841.

• The more recent the death certificate, the more information it is likely to contain.

• Some cities, towns, and counties kept death registers, which might predate statewide registration.

Funeral, Memorial, and Prayer Cards

• Funeral and memorial cards became popular in the 1880s.• Currently they are most often issued by the funeral home or church.

Image taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/newmundane/6248260023/sizes/m/in/photostream/ on 10/21/13

Funeral Home Records• Funeral home records are private so the content and accessibility will vary greatly.

• Guides for locating funeral homes“American Blue Book of Funeral Directors”“The National Yellow Book of Funeral Directors”“The Red Book”http://www.funeralnet.com/index.php

• Other sourcesNational Funeral Directors AssociationCremation Association of North AmericaJewish Funeral Directors of America

Institutional Records • Institutions can include; hospitals, sanitariums, asylums, almshouses, and prisons.• Many of these institutions keep records, but the more recent records may be restricted by privacy laws.

Monument Makers’ Records• These would be private business records.

• A New England resource could be Harriette Merrifield Forbes’s “Gravestones of Early New England and the Men Who Made Them, 1653-1800”.

Mortality Schedules• These are supplements to the federal census for the years 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 (though the only state that still has copies of the 1900 census is Minnesota).

Necrologies• If your family member belonged to a organization, society, church union or other group there may be a listing of the recently deceased.• These listings often appear in the organizations publications.

Obituaries and Death Notices• Not everyone has an obituary or death notice published in a local paper.• They vary greatly in the amount of information provided.• Some are written by family/friends of the deceased others are written by newspaper staff with information provided by the funeral home.• If someone died in an accident or unusual death, also look for a news article.

• Obituaries and death notices can be found more frequently online, but most are found through the local papers at local libraries.

Social Security Death Index• The Death Master File (DMF) from the Social Security Administration (SSA) currently contains over 89 million records and is updated weekly.

• Family Search and Ancestry.com have SSDI records.

Wills, Administrations, and Probate

• These records will give a place of death, but not a time of death.• Sometimes they will mention a funeral home that expenses should be paid.• These records can be found in county courthouses.

LOCATING CEMETERIES AND GRAVES

Locating Cemeteries• Regional guides such as “Massachusetts Cemeteries” by David Lambert.• Find A Grave website (http://www.findagrave.com/)• City Directories (for names of cemeteries, funeral homes and monument makers)• Cemetery deeds• Cemetery plant maps• Cemetery transcriptions• Town Hall – cemetery commissions

Veterans Cemeteries• Most soldiers during the Civil War and wars previous to that were buried where the death occurred.• It was on July 17 1862 that fourteen national cemeteries were established. Army crews sought out the remains of Union soldiers to have them reburied in the national cemeteries. Nearly half were not found. Confederate soldiers buried in national cemeteries were those that died in Union prison camps.

• There are now 131 national cemeteries in the United States. For a list and more information visit http://www.cem.va.gov/

Cemeteries Online• Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com/) is one of the most popular, but there are other excellent sites.• African American Cemeteries Online (http://africanamericancemeteries.com/)• Funeral Net (http://www.funeralnet.com/index.php)• Internment.net (http://www.interment.net/)• BillionGraves (http://www.billiongraves.com/)

Planning Your Visit• Spring and Fall are the best times to visit a cemetery (especially if it is neglected and overgrown).• Wear long pants, a long sleeve shirt, sturdy shoes and gloves. • Bring paper, several pencils, and a camera.• Write down names, dates, and inscriptions exactly as they appear on the stone.• Sketch any symbols.• Make a note of the physical relationship between tombstones. Nearby graves could provide additional information.

Resources Used• Carmack, Sharon DeBartolo. Your Guide to Cemetery

Research. Cincinnati, Ohio: Betterway Books, 2002.• Family Search Cemetery Wiki.

http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Cemeteries• Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/• Gilson, Thomas E. Carved In Stone: The Artistry of Early New

England Gravestones. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2012

• Kull, Andrew. New England Cemeteries: A Collector’s Guide. Brattleboror, Vt.: Greene Press, 1975

• Rogak, Lisa. Stones and Bones of New England: A Guide to Unusual, Historic, and Otherwise Notable Cemeteries. Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 2004

• Yalom, Marilyn. The American Resting Place. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2008