Funeral Home Records Valuable Resource For Genealogy
Posted
The Tree Shaker-
Most people do not realize that funeral home records are a good resource for genealogy research. A genealogy researcher knows to search for obituaries of their family to keep as a source for information. So once you have the obituary for your ancestor, look for the name of the funeral home handing the funeral arrangements. Funeral Homes keep detailed records about the deceased, they will have a copy of the funeral card, a copy of the death record and information about the next of kin. If an autopsy would have been done on your ancestor the funeral home can also supply you with that information. Some other things that a funeral home record can supply is: Education, church affiliation, military service, membership in clubs, lodges and other organizations that your ancestor may have been a part of. You will also find out where the ancestor was buried and the date of burial. Some of the funeral homes are not going to be in your area so start writing letters to request information from the funeral homes. Make sure you let the funeral home know that you are willing to pay for the information and provide an email address also because the information may be able to be scanned and emailed to you. If you are looking for a funeral home and find out that it is no longer in business you can try to search in the same town for other funeral homes. Usually funeral home records are taken over by other funeral homes who may keep older records.
