Cemeteries and Obituaries A source of Vital Information

Cemetery Records Can be a place to find… Family members Relatives in other plots Children who died young Women not found in other records

Cemetery Records Often include information about: Birth Marriage Death And sometimes: Military service Religion Membership in an Organization

Cemetery Records Vary in completeness and accuracy. Records may be difficult to locate.

Cemetery Records Determining a burial place can be a difficult problem. Use Obituaries and Death Certificates to solve this problem.

Burial place listed here.

There are 5 TYPES of Cemeteries in America.

1. Churchyard Members buried here. Custom from the Old World. Common in colonial states.

2. Church-owned Cemetery Not adjacent to Church building but is owned and operated by the church. Example in SLC is Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery.

3. Government-owned Cemetery Includes military Can be at town, county, state or national levels Maintained by taxes Salt Lake City Cemetery is an example. DeRuyter Town Cemetery, New York

4. Privately-owned, non-church cemetery Operated as a business enterprise; is a corporation. More common in recent years. Larkin Sunset Lawn is an example in Salt Lake City. Poukeepsie Cemetery

5. The Family Cemetery Often just a small corner of the family farm or estate. Set aside for family members and relatives. Found throughout Utah on hillsides and farms.

Cemetery Records 2 Types of Cemetery Records 1.Sexton’s Records 2.Tombstone or Gravestones

1.Sexton’s Records ~ started around the time of the Civil War

Sexton’s Records Provide ~ Names and dates of those buried. They are not obliged to share these records.

Sexton may also provide Maps of burial plots Salt Lake City Cemetery

How to Contact Sextons FHL Resources include: “Cemeteries of the United States” –Organized by County “United States Cemetery Addressbook” –Organized by State and Town

“Cemeteries of the United States”

United States Cemetery Address book

Tombstones or Gravestones The Other Cemetery Record Have been around a very long time. May be only record that a person lived and died.

The two types of Cemetery Records: Sexton’s Records Tombstones or Gravestones These may be transcribed and found in publications.

How to Find Transcriptions of Cemetery Records in the Family History Library and elsewhere…

One FHL Tool: “The Cemetery Record Compendium” 1979 by Jack Stemmons, FHL [has a Key to Format] Lists some of the Library Cemetery Record Holdings Uses our film numbers

Other Tools for finding Transcriptions of Cemetery Records Library Catalog Topics: –Cemeteries –Vital records –Also found under Newspapers and Obituaries PERSI

The FHLC can provide Cemetery helps like “Index to United States Cemeteries”

Let’s do a search for a Mrs. Roxana Dame in the Niagara, New York area. We’ll use the FHL catalog.

4 search paths

L.D.J. December 6, 1884, p 2 c 5 In Royalton, Nov 28, 1884 – Dame- Mrs. Roxana Dame, relict of Samuel Dame age 88 yr., resided here 50 yr. Born Vermont. Early to Canada. 1 st husb. Capt. Cutter with whom came N.Y. 4 children. He died consumption. She mar. Samuel Dame. Members M. E. Church Grandchildren. Miss Sara and Orlanda Dame. Lived with James C. Swift Family, Mrs. Swift being a step- daughter.

Lockport Daily Advertiser is a close match.

How can we locate a newspaper entry?

This shows the location where a copy of the actual newspaper article can be found.

PERSI Let’s do another search. This time we’ll use PERSI because the catalog doesn’t have what I’m looking for in Dryden, Tompkins, New York.

Periodical is New York Genealogical and Biographical Record BYGBR’s Found in FHL

This gives tombstone readings

The Sexton’s Records for Willow Glen Cemetery look like this…

Newspaper Transcripts Another source for Cemetery or Obituary Records is Newspaper Transcripts

A valuable source of older record information Easier to find than original copies.

Abstracts can look like this… They can provide good information.

cannot The FHL cannot house microfilms of all newspapers. It has some. The FHL can be a good source for INDEXES to newspapers.

New York Times Index Good example of a newspaper Index is the “New York Times Index”

Use the index to locate actual articles.

Locating an actual obituary can be very valuable in gathering family histories.