Funeral Records & The Secrets They Hold
Brenda Kellow
This has been a rather sad week necessitating attending two funerals—a family member and an acquaintance. The most emotional funeral was that of my great uncle who died on Saturday. He was one of my three favorites—Uncle Ernest, Uncle Bud and Uncle Ray—now all deceased in that order. No more great uncles are alive from any of my lines, but there is one great aunt still living. She is Uncle Ray’s sister who is alive and well and living in California. Uncle Ray lived a great life blessed with a loving wife, and adoring children and grandchildren.
While making the long drive to the funeral home, I began to ponder whether I needed any genealogical information on this branch of the family. I could only remember two little girls, but they belonged to another uncle. I had never found their burial places. Being one to tie up any lose strings, my thoughts went to possible records I could search for the information. It was then I thought of funeral home burial records. I don’t need to get funeral records to complete my search to document them, and it is not critical that each burial site be identified, but I never want to leave a stone unturned. After all, I had found a wealth of information on some of those records—and nothing on others. I entered a note in my PDA to remind me to tackle this when I got back home.
Upon returning home I examined the records I had found earlier. Among the records was a death certificate with little information on the cause of death or burial place. The only indication that either had been ill was in the column asking how many days the physician had been in attendance. He answered, “eight days.” Funny, but that had not registered before as being important. The funeral home/burial record might just lead me to the cause of death, and maybe indicate if either was hospitalized. Certainly they were quarantined. Maybe there is a record of quarantines. If the two little girls were in the hospital maybe these records were extant, the only hospital was located in a nearby county. I’ve not faired well with finding hospital records. I made another note that I must identify the hospital and search the next county for non-resident deaths.
I was familiar with the little town where the two little sisters died. There were two cemeteries and one funeral home. I recalled the records were complete and the funeral director and his secretary had always been happy to help me with my family search in the past. Both cemeteries had been inventoried and published. Checking the books, I found nothing to indicate the girls were buried in either of these cemeteries. It is logical they would be buried in the town where their parents resided.
The death certificates I had obtained sometime earlier showed both died of [blank] within six (6) days of each other in the early 1900s. Although there were two public cemeteries in the town, there was only one funeral home. The next day I visited the funeral home and talked with the director about my dilemma. He found the burial record of each child and made copies for me. The funeral record corroborated that both had died within six days of each other. It showed the cemetery as Old Pioneer Cemetery, and the cause of death as typhoid fever. Great, now I had the cause of death. But, there was a surprise for me in that folder.
There was a sister who also died of typhoid in his file of the family that I wasn’t aware of until the funeral home director asked if I wanted a copy of her record too.[1] I was in luck. It gave her full name, including her maiden name, parent’s names, the full name of her husband, and the name of the hospital[2] in the adjoining county where she died. Typhoid fever had killed the young bride at age 16. How sad. I could not imagine the grief the parents suffered after losing three daughters within a fifteen-day period.[3] The director indicated the two younger girls were buried side-by-side, with the older girl at their heads. Now I knew I was looking for three girls, sisters, two with their maiden name and the married girl with her husband’s surname.
I must visit the courthouse in the next county where I will hopefully find the death certificate for the older girl. I knew it must be filed under her husband’s surname. Evidently they were not married in the county in which her parents lived because there was no marriage record in the courthouse. Maybe I could find it in one of the contiguous counties. Since she died in one county and was buried in another, there should also be a record of “body removal.”[4] If I had not checked with the funeral director for the burial records, I may never have known about the married girl. He certainly went the extra mile to identify the girl I did not know existed. I love working in small towns, and the attention to detail given me by the residents.
I spent the rest of the day walking the cemetery reading stones.[5] There was no stone in the entire burial ground with that family name, nor with the oldest girl’s married name.[6] The two girls lived and died with that terrible disease without their final resting place recognizing them. The only thing I could do now was to place a cenotaph near the front gate with their three names and dates. Usually the cemetery keeper does not object when a family member places a memorial stone near the front gate of the cemetery.[7]
Usually the cemetery records have something on them to enlighten me and fill in a missing puzzle piece in my family quilt. These certainly did. I know I really didn’t’ need the burial places, but I always try to find them for my own satisfaction. This time I found the other daughter, and I knew the parents had purchased the burial plots, when the purchase was made, how the girls were placed in the plot, and their relationship to the plot owner, etc.
As I have indicated, funeral records have helped me several times. There was one occasion when I tried to find the burial place of a man that lead to a wonderful discovery. The funeral record had an attachment stapled to it that said a train had killed him while he was uncoupling a boxcar in the train yard in Fort Smith, Arkansas. It went on to say that he had spent four painful weeks in the local hospital after the doctors removed his leg. Unfortunately, he developed a fatal case of gangrene. He was not buried in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the site of the fatal accident, or in Fayetteville where the family originated. This was the opportunity to search through the family ‘legends’ to try and retrieve a clue in hopes I can document the story.[8] Because some of the cousins had later moved from Fayetteville into Oklahoma City, I decided to try there. The Family History Center’s microfilm of funeral home records and cemetery inventories in Oklahoma City was most helpful.
One cemetery in particular had the subject’s name in the inventory list. The microfilm record showed that his mother, who had previously disappeared and was assumed to be dead, was alive before his death and living in her home in Oklahoma City. The reason she was presumed dead was because her husband was still living in their home in Washington County. If they legally separated or divorced, it was not in Washington County records, but that search is for another day. Now, lets go back to the burial plot. The mother had purchased the plot several years before her single son’s death in the switching yards. From the burial record and the attachment, I found the cost of the plot, the names of more of her unmarried children, a drawing that marked exactly where on the plot each would to be buried, the mother’s residence, and her daughter’s occupation and address. The daughter was a hairdresser and owned her own shop. The mother and married daughter were living side by side.
Let me tell you about another funeral record that might be of interest. This funeral record identified a cemetery in Northampton County that I did not know about. Few people knew it was there because it was located behind a huge trash-recycling plant that totally blocked it from being seen from the road.[9] However at my visit, the cemetery had been mowed and all the tombstones were upright indicating that someone was caring for it. A stroll through the bone yard uncovered the rather large tombstone of the person for whom I was searching. I’m glad I had the fortune to find it, because I have to tell you the odors from the plant were almost unbearable on that hot summer day.
There are other cemetery records that gave me valuable information, and some that gave me absolutely nothing. I think you get the point that if you have not checked cemetery and funeral records you may be missing valuable clues to your family puzzle.
There are few caretaker buildings in non-commercial cemeteries in the south and in Texas, but they are plentiful elsewhere. Just walk into the office and ask for assistance. They are most happy to help.
Texas Laws concerning Cemeteries on Private Property.
TX Laws
§ 711.041. Access to Cemetery
(a) Any person who wishes to visit a cemetery or private burial grounds
for which no public ingress or egress is available shall have the right
to reasonable ingress and egress for the purpose of visiting the
cemetery or private burial grounds. This right of access extends only to
visitation during reasonable hours and only for purposes usually
associated with cemetery visits.
(b) The owner or owners of the lands surrounding the cemetery or private
burial grounds may designate the routes of reasonable ingress and
egress.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 634, § 22, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.
Facts about Funerals in the state of Texas: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/tx/topic/cemeteries/txlaws.htm
Previously published in the December 2007 issue of Genealogy Friends Newsletter.
[1] No extant 1890 census, no birth records, and no church records for that time period.
[2] Few of these records exist. I’ve never had much luck acquiring these records.
[3] I made a note to check the history of the disease in the county to determine if the girls died during an epidemic.
[4] In addition to ‘body removal’ certificates, there is also a record made of grave openings and closing. Unfortunately I have never been too successful finding these.
[5] Cemeteries on private property are accessible under the Ingress and Egress law applicable in most states. This gives you the right to safely enter and leave the cemetery. The owner of the land has to let you on his property without causing the visitor any fear. If you don’t have a copy of it, you should in case you ever have to show it to a landowner with the cemetery on his/her property. See http://www.usgennet.org/usa/tx/topic/cemeteries/txlaws.htm.
[6] The cemetery had large areas without stones, indicating they were broken and removed, or perhaps vandalism.
[7] If there is not a caretaker, then perhaps there is a person in the county with information on the cemetery.
[8] Family stories, legends, are interesting, but they must be documented before declaring them truth.
[9] A couple of Methodist ministers were buried there, however, the current minister and many of his flock was under the misconception the trash recycle plant had built over it and the cemetery was destroyed.