Search based on the results you want

When searching records on Ancestry, think about the details you’d expect to find in the records you’re seeking. Since most of the records pertaining to your relatives were created while they were alive, it’s often best to search without entering their death date. This is a good strategy when searching for census, birth, and marriage records.

When searching for death records, include a death date to get the best results. Even if you don’t have an exact date, an educated guess can help. Use the advanced search (by clicking “Show more options”—if you’ve clicked this in the past, you’ll see a link instead saying “Show fewer options”) to specify +/- 1, 2, 5, or 10 years on either side of your estimate.

Finding death and burial information

In order to find someone’s cemetery records, determine where they were buried. Death records are a good place to start your search. Many death records provide the name of the cemetery where the deceased was buried.

The Newspapers.com Obituary Collection includes records from millions of newspaper pages ranging from the 1800s to the 2000s. The U.S. Obituary Collection, 1930-Current contains obituaries from both newspapers and the internet, so it’s useful for people who died in the recent past. These obituaries often contain death and burial information.

The U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) on Ancestry contains records for Americans who died between 1962 and up to three years ago. Records are released three years after a person dies. The government has kept these records since 1962, but the index also contains a small number of people who died between 1937 and 1961. You won’t find a place of death listed on an SSDI record, but you may find their residence at the time of death, which can help you narrow down a death location.

Find A Grave is an excellent resource for locating burial locations. If you’re not finding someone’s burial location online, you may need to take your search offline. Start your search close to where they lived and check the cemeteries nearby. Some religious groups maintain their own burial grounds.

Some people likely weren’t buried as close to home as you might think. As cities grew, sometimes the dead were moved to make more room for the living. As the cemeteries in larger cities were pushed to the outskirts and beyond city boundaries, there was an increased need for transportation to the cemeteries. Often, spur lines (short railroad tracks) were created off of main railroads in the city, and special funeral cars transported the deceased and mourners to the cemeteries.

In some cases, people were transported to an entirely different city or state for burial, sometimes with other family members. Since the transport of bodies was regulated (due to fear of infectious diseases), you may be able to locate body transit records or burial permits. Sometimes, you’ll find these records within broader collections of state death records. Check the city and county municipalities as well to see which records are available.

Other burial resources

If you can get your hands on a good local map for your search area, you may find the cemeteries outlined on the map.

You may find that your ancestor’s cemetery has an online index. Ancestry has many cemetery and grave databases among its collections. Some cemeteries also post their own indexes online.

Genealogical societies are great when it comes to recording cemetery information. Check with societies in the areas you’re searching in to see what publications and database collections are available beyond Ancestry.

Alternate death records

In many places, civil death registration didn’t begin until the 20th century. When there’s no death certificate, here are some alternatives:

U.S. Mortality schedules. Between 1850 and 1880, federal censuses recorded names of people who had died during the 12 months prior to the census on separate mortality schedules.
U.S. City directories. If your relative lived in a city, directories can sometimes help you determine a year of death. When a name is listed for several consecutive years and suddenly disappears, that person may have passed away. When a man died, his wife might be listed in subsequent years as “widow” or “widow of.”
Court records. Court records sometimes include probate documents that name the person who died, their date of death, and their heirs. When a child’s parent(s) dies, chances are good that guardianship records at the county court will provide death information.
Other cemetery records. Find A Grave is a great source for finding cemeteries. They have photographs of millions of graves. Details can also often be found on a tombstone or in the records of a cemetery sexton, and millions of cemetery records have been transcribed and indexed by genealogical societies.
Passenger lists. Before people learned how to preserve bodies, passengers and crew members who died on ships were usually buried at sea. Look for notations next to names on ship manifests. Also check the end of the manifests, where the captain sometimes noted births and deaths onboard.
Hospital records. Most contemporary hospital records are closed to the public, but some older collections are available on Ancestry. Try searching our card catalog with the keyword “hospital.”
U.S. Military records. Some military records contain death information. Casualty lists and prisoner of war records are among the most useful.
Funeral home records. Funeral home records vary in format and content, but they can all be valuable for determining someone’s death date. Check genealogical and historical societies; state, county, and local libraries; and municipal archives for possible holdings. Try searching our card catalog with the keyword “funeral home.”
Newspapers and obituary collections. Newspapers and obituaries can be invaluable for finding information about people who have died. Try searching for these on Ancestry and Newspapers.com.
Pension records. Pension records often include death dates, particularly when a widow is applying for the pension. Ancestry has military pension records from the American Revolutionary War and an index to Civil War pensions among its collections.
Church records. Religious records often predate civil registration records.
U.S. Homes for Disabled Veterans. Following the Civil War, a network of homes was set up for disabled veterans. If a veteran died in a home, records noted death and burial information, and sometimes included an accounting of personal effects and who money was disbursed to.
1890 U.S. Veterans Schedule. The 1890 Census was mostly destroyed in a fire in 1921 in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C. But fortunately, nearly 75,000 special schedules with the names of Union veterans and widows survived. In cases where the widow is listed, you may find the place and date of death for the soldier.