How to Find Out Where Someone Is Buried: Records, Databases and Who to Call

Our guide to finding a grave in a cemetery assumes you know the cemetery. Often you do not. A grandparent died before you were born, a family moved twice since, the one relative who knew is gone. This is the search for the cemetery itself, in the order that finds it fastest.

1. The obituary

Obituaries almost always name the cemetery, and obituaries from roughly the last twenty-five years are online: funeral home websites, Legacy.com, newspaper archives, and free newspaper databases through most public libraries. Search the full name with the town and a year. Older obituaries are on microfilm at the library serving the town where the person died; librarians will search a date range for you by email.

2. The death certificate

A death certificate lists the place of disposition: the cemetery, or the crematory. Close relatives can order one from the state vital records office, usually online, for a small fee. For deaths more than a few decades ago, many states have released the records to genealogy sites, where they are searchable for free.

3. Find a Grave and BillionGraves

Find a Grave has memorials for a very large share of American burials, built by volunteers from headstone photos and obituaries. Search the name with a death year; if there are several matches, the birth year, spouse's name or a middle initial narrows it. BillionGraves is a second database built from GPS-tagged headstone photos and catches some the first misses. Our guide to Find a Grave memorials explains the site.

4. Veterans

For anyone who served, the VA's Nationwide Gravesite Locator covers national cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries and many private cemeteries where a government headstone was supplied. It gives the cemetery, section and grave. Our national cemetery guide has more.

5. The funeral home

If the family remembers which funeral home handled the service, call it. Funeral homes keep records for decades, and the record states the cemetery. If the home has closed, another local home usually took its files; the state funeral directors' association can say which.

6. The cemeteries themselves

When you know the town but not the cemetery, list the cemeteries in it (Find a Grave lists cemeteries by county) and call each office with the name and approximate year. Church cemeteries keep the register at the parish; municipal ones at the town clerk or public works office. Most look up a name in minutes.

7. County and church records

Older burials appear in county death registers, church burial registers, and the cemetery transcriptions that local genealogical societies have compiled for a century. The county genealogical or historical society is the best single phone call for a burial before about 1950.

When the grave is found

Write down the cemetery, section and lot, add them to the Find a Grave memorial so the next relative does not have to search, and if you cannot get there yourself, have flowers placed and a photo taken. Many families see a grandparent's grave for the first time that way. Our guide to caring for a grave from far away covers what comes next.