Funeral home records often hold details that a death certificate or obituary leaves out, and many go back more than a century. Here is what they contain, how to find them and how much to trust them.
What funeral home records contain
- Full name, dates of birth and death, and place of death
- Parents’ names, spouse and next of kin
- Occupation, marital status and military service
- Who arranged and paid for the funeral
- Service location, officiant and cemetery or crematory
- Sometimes insurance, clothing and other arrangement details
Finding the right funeral home
The death certificate, obituary, funeral program or memorial card usually names the funeral home. If you don’t have those, check the newspaper death notice or a cemetery’s burial record, which often lists the funeral director. City directories from the time list local funeral homes and undertakers.
If the funeral home has closed
When a funeral home closes or is sold, another firm usually takes over its records. Each state’s funeral service licensing board (often called the Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers) can tell you which firms are licensed and may know who has a closed firm’s files. Local historical and genealogical societies, county libraries and state archives also collect old funeral home ledgers; search the FamilySearch Catalog for “funeral home” and the town name.
Some libraries have indexed funeral home records online. The Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for example, has searchable databases that include local funeral home records alongside its obituary index.
Asking for records
Funeral homes are private businesses and don’t have to share their files, but many will help with older records, especially for family members. Write or call with the person’s name, date of death and your relationship, and offer to pay for copies. Be patient: small firms may need time to search old ledgers.
How reliable are they?
The name, date and place of death are usually accurate, since the funeral home recorded them at the time. Other details, such as birth dates and parents’ names, came from whoever made the arrangements and may be wrong. Check them against census records, death certificates and other sources.