I’ve been tromping through cemeteries for many years. Occasionally I’ve even been known to stop and talk to a headstone or two. A lot of genealogy can come out of the cemetery.
A lot of records are produced at the time of death. A number of those records are found at the cemetery. You will often find the following data on the headstone:
- Person’s Name
- Date and Place of Birth
- Date and Place of Marriage
- Date and Place of Death
- Name of Spouse
- Name of Parents (if person died as a child)
- Symbols of the person’s affiliation with lodges or churches
At the very least, You will get the person’s name with birth and death year.
By checking the surrounding graves, you might find other family members. Some of these folks may have names you don’t immediately recognize, but upon further research, find that they are members of the “extended” family.
Always attempt to locate the sexton’s records for the cemetery. These records often show who purchased the graves and when. A block of eight graves might have been purchased upon the death of one family member, but the purchaser wanted to prepare for future burials – allowing the family to be buried together. I’ve located family burial plots in cemeteries all over the United States. Some of them have empty burial sites – no one having been buried for over 100 years! By identifying the people buried next to each other, you can often obtain clues to family relationships.
When traveling to an area to do research, always attempt to contact the keeper of the records, and make an appointment to see the sexton’s records prior to walking the cemetery. This can save you many hours of fruitless searching. Some cemeteries are so large that to walk them can take weeks. Even a small city cemetery may take a day to walk through. Keep in mind that cemetery records are kept in a variety of places. Some of those places are:
- Cemetery offices
- The “grounds” shed at the cemetery
- City Hall
- Private homes
- Church offices
- Funeral homes
I’ve found that calling city hall or a local funeral home will often help me identify where I need to look for the records.
Take your camera. Attempt to visit when the sun is shining on the front of the stones. It’s a good idea to take a mirror along to bounce light back on the stone. The use of a mirror will often allow you to read stones that are nearly illegible. Also take a note pad to record what is written on the stone. If your picture isn’t clear, you’ll still have the information.