Burial places can offer a wide range of vital family history information, including
- Name of the deceased
- Date of birth and death
- Place of birth and death
- Maiden surname
- Spouse, children, parents’ names
- Ethnicity
- Military, religious occupational, organizational information
- Cause of death
Cemetery record types
- Headstone inscriptions
- Published headstone inscriptions
- Plot books, cemetery sexton records
- Cemetery maps
Types of cemeteries
- Churchyard cemeteries adjacent to church
- Cemeteries owned by churches, denominations
- Government owned cemeteries
- Private, non-denominational cemeteries
- Family-owned, private cemeteries
Misconceptions about cemeteries
- There are records for all cemeteries
- My ancestor has a gravestone
- Cemeteries are cared for by governments
- Gravestones are correct because they are carved in stone
- All cemeteries are catalogued/inventoried
Search tips for finding the burial places of your ancestors
- Search broadly and flexibly. If you can’t find Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, AL, look for cemetery records for Dallas County, AL, for example.
- Search a locality for burial sites not just one suspected cemetery.
- Infant burials may only list a surname.
- Use various names for cemeteries to find databases, record books and websites — graveyards, burying grounds, burial grounds, burial plots, churchyard, for example.
- Check local historical societies and public libraries for unpublished lists of local burial places.
- Search church records for burial records – e.g., Archdiocese of Boston records from NEHGS.
- Search obituaries and local newspaper articles for burial information.
- Use place of death from vital records to start your cemetery.
Free large-scale, community-driven cemetery databases
- Find A Grave
Maintained by volunteers, there is quality checking but it's spotty - BillionGraves
Emphasizes photographic evidence with mandatory GPS coordinates for every entry
Mid-scale specialized cemetery databases—free access
- U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs National Gravesite Locator
Burial locations of Veterans and their family members in VA national cemeteries, state veterans’ cemeteries, various other military and Department of Interior cemeteries, and for Veterans buried in private cemeteries when the grave is marked with a government grave marker. - JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR)
On JewishGen, a compilation of three linked databases: burial records, headstone photos and cemetery information
Cemetery databases within subscription genealogy databases
Read closely and drill down on specific collections to find burial records from all over the world.
Ancestry.com
Sample list of cemetery sub-databases within Ancestry.com:
American Ancestors/NEGHS
Sample list of cemetery record databases:
FamilySearch
Not a subscription database, but you must create an account and log in to use records
Sample list of cemetery record databases:
