Genealogy at a Glance: American Cemetery Research

Finding where your ancestors are buried can be an arduous process. Sometimes, finding the cemetery itself is difficult enough. By the late 1800s, death certificates and obituaries often revealed the location of burial. Funeral cards and even the family’s oral history also provide, in many cases, this information. Prior to the late 19th century, however, there is probably less direct information available. The upside is few people were buried far from their died. If you know where the death took place, then the final resting place is most likely in the same area. Genealogy-at-a-Glance: American Cemetery Research provides excellent assistance to the researcher seeking their ancestors’ final resting place.

American Cemetery Research was written by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack.  Sharon has contributed more Genealogy-at-a-Glances than any other author. In addition to this guide, she has authored the following guides:

Like all the Genealogy At A Glance sheets, this guide is a four-page, full-color limited brochure meant to be easily stored and sized to take with you when conducting related research. And, like each At A Glance, the top of the first page provides Contents and Quick Facts. Facts in this guide indicate that grave markers can be dated, to some degree, by the material used to make the marker. For example, “1660s-1850s – Tombstones were made from sedimentary rock, such as sandstone or limestone.”

 

Contents for this guide:

Locating Your Ancestor’s Final Resting Place

Types of Cemeteries

Planning Your Cemetery Field Trip

  • Your Cemetery Equipment

Photographing Markers

Tombstone Rubbings

  • A Word of Grave Caution

Finding the Living Among the Dead

Databases of the Dead

The “Types of Cemeteries” section provides details for the following location types:

  • Church graveyards
  • Family burial plots
  • Country cemeteries
  • Slave burying grounds
  • Elite garden cemeteries
  • Ordinary urban cemeteries
  • Veterans cemeteries
  • Memorial parks
  • Potter’s fields

Additional tips and further references, including “a word of grave caution,” provide the reader with additional help and sources to records.

 

Order Genealogy-at-a-Glance: American Cemetery Research from Family Roots Publishing; Item #: GPC887, Price: $8.77.

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