Cemetery Records

Robert W. Marlin shows how to use cemetery records as a path to the past.

While some headstones contain nothing more than a name and dates, others, such as this headstone of ill-fated duellist Lt. James Wilde, are more descriptive.

Cemetery records are among the oldest and finest sources of genealogical information available. There are thousands of cemeteries throughout America. They fall into dozens of categories including religious, fraternal, family, national and private family sites. Some cemeteries are situated on a fraction of an acre of ground while others cover hundreds of acres. There seems to be little relationship between the size of a cemetery and the neatness or availability of its records.

A walk through a cemetery can be like a walk through history. There are cemeteries which predate America as a nation and others which didn’t become operational until this century. Many are no longer operational while others are expanding their facilities. This is a facet of genealogical research that is difficult to do without “being there”.

My personal experience has taken me into cemeteries of many denominations including Lutheran, Jewish and Catholic. Those who have already done genealogical research in cemeteries can appreciate their importance as a source. When visiting a cemetery you never know what you might find. In addition to information about the deceased, you sometimes discover an entire family branch that you were not aware of. The possibilities of finding new genealogical research are endless, but attention to detail is the key to finding them. Simply taking a picture of a headstone is not going to tell the entire story you are seeking.

Few genealogists totally agree on exactly what cemetery records consist of. Personally, I consider death certificates, obituaries, funeral director’s records, cemetery management records, cemetery land deeds, burial society records, headstones, vaults and mausoleums to belong to the category of cemetery records.

Death Certificates
A death certificate is an important form of cemetery record. Most death certificates provide the name of the cemetery and the name of the undertaker or mortician, or funeral director. It may also include the name and address of the person who supplied the information that appears on the death certificate. It was a death certificate that prompted my first visit to the Jewish Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, New York. I was searching for my paternal grandparents. I had never known either of them. The name on the death certificate was Meyer Margolin. He died three years before I was born. The cemetery office told me that my grandfather was buried in a Burial Society site known as the United Friends and Relatives and directed me to that location. When I got to the site, I quickly found my grandfather’s headstone. Less than 20 feet away I also located the headstone of my grandmother, Hilda Margolin. That was in 1977. I’ll never forget standing amid all these headstones, on a windy, cloudy and overcast day in October silently weeping because I had finally found my continuity with the past. Before I left that day, the cemetery office was able to provide me with the name of the present Recording Secretary of the Burial Society. The end result of a letter to him was a meeting with the descendants of the family of my grandmother’s sister. On subsequent visits to the cemetery, I discovered many other family members whose descendants are now part of my genealogical database. In many cases we are in regular contact. The bottom line is that a death certificate was responsible for leading me to all the other cemetery records.

Obituaries
Over the years obituaries have provided me with information which has expedited my research by providing the name of the cemetery in which the deceased was interred. Many American newspapers now have the more recent local obituaries indexed on computer, making your job a lot easier. For many years of this century, the New York Times offered generous discounts on obituary rates to funeral homes. The funeral directors in turn sometimes threw in a New York Times obituary as part of the cost of the funeral service. Most reference libraries also carry the New York Times Obituary Index. However, this publication does not include paid obituaries. For the most part, it only includes prominent or newsworthy people. This type of index exists in many other cities. This source of genealogical information is far too important to skip or gloss over. In many cases even a paid obituary often includes mention of the names of the immediate family and might include family members who you may not be aware of. The name of the funeral home in an obituary might also be instrumental in putting you in touch with these family members.

Funeral Director Records
They started out with the title of undertaker. Over the years this title slowly evolved to mortician. Now they are knows as funeral directors. They perform a vital service to grieving families who in many cases simply can’t cope with the loss of a loved one. In many areas of America they have served several generations of the same family.

Funeral directors are sometimes also a great source of genealogical information. Their records are usually well kept and accurate. In some cases they have copies of death certificates and obituaries in their files. They can usually put you in touch with the next of kin of the deceased person you are searching for. Some years ago, a letter I wrote was simply forwarded to the next of kin who immediately got in touch with me.

For $30, the author obtained a complete list of persons buried in an ancestral family plot.

Cemetery Management Records
The official records of a cemetery can provide lots of information of value to a genealogist. My great-grandfather, Louis Christian Kruse, purchased a 12-gravesite family plot in Lutheran Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, New York in 1877. It wasn’t until 1992 that I requested a complete list of persons buried in this family plot. Lutheran Cemetery charged me $30 for this search and it was money well spent. One of the most interesting things to note is that the surname Kruse is spelled in four different ways. I later found out the cemetery was required by law to keep their records consistent with the spelling of the name as it appeared on the death certificate. (This is another reason why I class death certificates as cemetery records.)

Cemetery authorities also can be a lot of help should you want to contact living family members. If you don’t live near the cemetery, a short note explaining why you want to contact the family is all that is necessary. Sometimes the cemetery is already in touch with family members who pay annually for gravesite maintenance. Other times they will simply supply you with the last known address of the next of kin shown on their records. They are not legally required to respond to your inquiry, however, so it is not a bad idea to enclose a check to cover the cost of their time and effort. They are in business and are entitled to be compensated for services of this type when rendered.

Knowing the name of the undertaker can also sometimes put you in touch with living family members. This has worked for me on several occasions when the obituary mentioned the name of the funeral home. I simply wrote them a short note explaining why I was trying to contact the family and they simply passed the note on to the family, who in turn contacted me. When getting directions to the gravesite, be sure to find out if it is a family plot or a burial society. If it is a family plot ask for the name of the next of kin from the cemetery records. This can sometimes put you in immediate contact with family members. If a burial society, ask for the name of the recording secretary of the burial society. Look for headstones with names you may recognize as other close relatives. A husband and wife may not always be side by side because of space limitations at the time of death.

Cemetery Land Deeds
On 22 October 1877, my great grandfather, Louis Christian Kruse, came to Lutheran Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens County, State of New York. For consideration of $50 cash, he purchased Lot #11651. This consisted of a 12-gravesite plot of land which was to be used as a family burial plot and belonged to him or his descendants forever. This indenture was recorded on 23 February 1878. The last burial of a Kruse family member occurred there in June 1990. This particular document provided no real genealogical information. However, it certainly makes a fine family historical document.

A recorded deed of a family cemetery plot with a municipal government is a cemetery record. Land deeds are similar to property deeds. Like most records, the amount of information is usually governed by the time period in which the event took place. According to the cemetery office, land deeds were generally only recorded on lot-sized indentures. They were not normally issued for individual gravesites.

Burial Society Records
The records of a burial society are without doubt cemetery records and can easily take you from the past directly into the present. Burial Societies come in all denominations and sizes. Many fraternal organizations like the Moose Lodge and the Elks Club have national cemeteries in which members may be buried. Many of these burial society organizations also had a social side and held regular meetings and kept accurate records that may still exist. When I contacted the Recording Secretary of the United Friends and Relatives for information about my grandmother, he quoted information from the minutes of a meeting held in 1941. He also supplied the names of close relatives who I was able to successfully contact.

Most Jewish headstones contain at least the name of the father of the deceased, and often other family information as well. In some cases, Jewish headstones even feature pictures of the deceased.

Headstone, Vault and Mausoleum Inscriptions
Many cemetery records are recorded not on paper but in stone. However, even though the information is literally carved in stone, it can contain errors. Headstone inscriptions have been around for centuries. They contain as little as the name of the deceased or can contain as much as a complete family history. In many cases, the headstones, vaults and mausoleums in a cemetery contain more genealogical information than the records maintained by the cemetery organization. Always bring a camera and plenty of film. Photograph any headstones you even suspect of being related. In the case of Jewish people, this bonus is extended, as almost all Jewish headstones contain more than just the name of the deceased. They usually contain at least the name of the father of the deceased, and often other family information as well. The information found in cemeteries is unique in each case and almost always makes the trip worthwhile.

My wife Sylvia and I have stayed at a wonderful inn, located on top of a mountain on the Blue Ridge Parkway. On our way to playing tennis, we were quite surprised to find a large, well-kept, private walled cemetery adjacent to the tennis court. A bronze plaque simply stated that it was the Buchanan Burial Ground, and had been established in 1878. The burial ground contained approximately 25 well-manicured gravesites. I’m sure that anyone researching the surname Buchanan might be interested in this site. Further research convinced me that there are thousands of these types of private family burial grounds scattered throughout the US.

Several years ago a cousin in California asked me to see if I could locate any information about his father’s family, who were originally from Henderson, Georgia. On one of our trips, we found a small cemetery located behind a church. In this remote place we found a headstone with the name of one of his father’s brothers. A call to the cemetery several weeks later informed us that records going back to the 1930s did not exist. However, the lady at the cemetery did provide me with the name and telephone number of an elderly woman who still lived there. I passed this information on to my cousin. It turned out that this lady not only knew my cousin’s father, but also the entire family. Some months later my cousin had a grand reunion with family members at Lake Tahoe, in California. I wish you the same degree of success in your research.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 1998 issue of Family Chronicle.