Several types of cemetery records are available. Sextons or caretakers of cemeteries generally keep records of the names and dates of those buried and maps of the burial plots. Tombstones or gravestones may also exist, or the information on them may have been transcribed.

Cemetery records often include birth, marriage, and death information. They sometimes provide clues about military service, religion, or membership in an organization, such as a lodge. These records are especially helpful for identifying children who died young or women who were not recorded in family or government documents. Check the sexton's records, or visit the cemetery in person to see if other relatives are in the same or adjoining plots.

Locating Cemeteries and Cemetery Records

To find tombstone or sexton records, you need to know where an individual was buried. The person may have been buried in a community, church, private, military, or family cemetery, usually near the place where he lived or died or where other family members were buried. You can find clues to burial places in funeral notices, obituaries, church records, funeral home records, and death certificates.

You can find the addresses of many cemeteries in:

Cemeteries of the U.S.: A Guide to Contact Information for U.S. Cemeteries and Their Records. 1st ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. (FHL book 973 V34ce; computer number 704917.) Lists over 22,000 operating and inactive cemeteries. Alphabetical by state, county, and cemetery name. Entries may list physical location or mailing address, phone and fax numbers, contact information for cemetery record keepers, years of operation, religious and other affiliations.

Kot, Elizabeth Gorrell. United States Cemetery Address Book, 1994-1995. Vallejo, Calif.: Indices Publishing, 1994. (FHL book 973 V34k; computer number 729856.) Lists over 25,000 cemetery addresses and locations. Alphabetical by state, town, and cemetery name.

Other sources of cemetery records include:

• The present sexton, funeral home, or minister who may have the burial registers and the records of the burial plots.
• A local library, historical society, or local historian, who may have the records or can help you locate obscure family plots or relocated cemeteries. Cemetery associations sometimes publish inventories or transcripts for their areas.
• Sextons' records and transcripts of tombstone information that have been published, often in local genealogical periodicals. (See the periodical indexes listed in the “Periodicals” section of this outline.)
• Lists of soldiers' graves, described in the U.S. Military Records Research Outline (34118).