Lying in Wait: Locating Ancestral Remains
Imagine you're looking for your 3rd great-grandfather's grave, but he lived in an entirely different state and everyone he knew is dead. It may be that you're the only one in your family who cares about genealogy. How in the world (pun intended) do you find his grave?
The quickest way to figure it out is to go to Find A Grave. Find A Grave is not comprehensive, however, but is user maintained. If you are a genealogist you can add records for cemeteries you have visited. When searching Find A Grave, you can search by as little as a last name, or you can enter the full name, approximate years of birth and death, and the state and county of potential burial. You can even search for cemeteries within a county, then search last names in those cemetery. However, as mentioned, Find A Grave is not comprehensive, so if someone isn’t listed, it doesn’t mean they’re not there.
The next best way to find a burial is to locate a death certificate, which will provide the burial place most of the time. For Missouri, many of these can be found through Missouri Digital Heritage, which has death certificates between 1910 and 1963. There is also a less comprehensive collection of death records prior to 1910 and dating as far back as 1867. Depending on the state, similar information from other states can be found at familysearch.org.
If you can’t find a death certificate, you may be able to find an obituary. For Missouri, the best place to go to is the Springfield-Greene County Library website, where we have News-Leaders articles indexed going back to 1867. However, the list is not comprehensive. Our Local History and Genealogy Department has obituary books dating back to 1900, with a comprehensive index available to check names. If you’re looking for someone outside of Springfield, it’s normally as simple as contacting the local library and requesting they look for an obituary. Sometimes it is free, and sometimes there’s a small fee.
Many libraries will have not only obituary books, but cemetery listings, and the cemetery listings will usually contain an index. You can travel to the library, but it’s usually as simple as calling. If you are unsure which cemetery your ancestor may be in, finding them on the federal census will get you close to the right place. You can go to Google maps, type in an address near where they lived and search for cemeteries that are close by. If you can figure out your ancestor’s religious affiliation, there may be a cemetery adjoining the local church.
Many cemeteries will have a contact number, and you can call them to see if someone is buried there. Your ancestor may not have a stone, but the cemetery would likely have recorded the burial. They may even be able to provide you with a map to the spot.
If you need assistance locating a burial, cemetery associations, or funeral homes, feel free to contact your local branch of the Springfield-Greene County Library.
Find this article at