|
|
|
|
| Palm Beach County, FLGenWeb |
Home | Archives | Cemeteries | Census | Cities & Towns | History | Military | Miscellaneous | Vital Records | Volunteer | What's New
Cemeteries
If you want burial information looked up you should check
with the Palm Beach County Genealogical Society. I do not have these
books myself, but the society should have them. I would be thrilled if
someone who has access to this information would be interested in becoming a
lookup volunteer for this information. Contact the county coordinator if you are this person.
The following books are available through the Palm Beach County Genealogical
Society:
See also the Palm Beach County Genealogical Society's Cemetery Records page. (PBCGS) They have a huge volume of records available.
- The Municipal Cemeteries of Lake Worth, Florida - Index of Burials 1923 - 1997
- Delray Beach Memorial Gardens - Index of Burials September 1903 - September 1987
- Woodlawn Cemetery, West Palm Beach - Index of Burials January 1905 through December 1994
- Boynton Beach Memorial Park and Mausoleum - Index of Burials August 1903 through April 2005
Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass Burial Site - located at the Junction of 25th Street and Tamarind Avenue in West Palm Beach
If you didn't find the information you were looking for on this site, here's some advice on how to conduct your own search.
Thanks to thousands of volunteers that transcribe and submit cemetery information for posting on the internet your odds of finding that ancestors final resting place increase each day. The majority of U.S. cemetery transcriptions will be found in one of the following places
Cemetery
Junction: Many of the cemeteries in this directory are linked to
transcriptions entered by volunteers
Interment.net:
There are close to 4 million burial records available for searching on
this site.
FindAGrave.com
- over 11 million grave records
AccessGenealogy.com:
Includes a state-by-state listing of cemetery transcriptions
To begin your search you'll need a few pieces of information. The most critical piece of information you need is to know where they died. Most people, particularly before long distance travel became practical, were buried near the place they died. If they died at a location that wasn't considered "home" but was fairly close (such as a hospital in another county), they were probably taken home for burial. Once railroad travel became widely available families with the funds may have transported thier loved ones long distances to lay them to rest in the cemetery where other family members were buried - particularly their parents and siblings.
Having the date of birth and death will help to narrow your search, although a good estimate will normally do the job (unless you need to order a death certificate).
The best resources for finding clues on where an ancestor is buried are:
If you have access to the US
Censuses, and they lived between 1790-1940, track them to the last
census they show up on.
Obituaries: Obituaries will
often indicate the burial location. If you know the city or local area
of where the person died, and date of death, obtain the newspaper of
that area, for that date, and look up the obituary. Newspapers will
publish an obituary as soon as someone submits one. Therefore, when
searching for an obituary, check all editions of the newspaper following
the next seven days from the date of death.
Visit your local public library
and speak to the reference librarian on how to obtain old newspapers.
For newspapers that are no longer in circulation, the state genealogical
or historical society will often have microfilms that are available
through inter-library loan.
Social Security Death Index:
The Social Security Administration publishes a database of SSA
registrants who have died since the 20th century. The database will
provide the date of death, and the zip code of where the registrant was
residing at the time of death. The database can be queried either by
name or social security number. The main reason for using the Social
Security Death Index is to find the date of death, so as to obtain a
death certificate or finding the obituary. Ancestry.com provides a
Social Security Death Index based on this database but you must be a
member.
Death Certificates: Obtaining a
decedent's death certificate will indicate the place of death. Often, it
will also include the place of birth, date of birth, and even the names
of parents. The catch is, however, you need to have the exact date of
death to begin with in order to obtain a death certificate. You may or
may not need to have the county of where the death was recorded.
Death certificates are issued by the county or state of where the death was recorded. Requesting certificates from the state will always require both the date and place of death. Requesting certificates from the county, will only require the date of death. Small, rural counties, will often require only the decedent's name, as there are fewer names to sort through.
A good website for getting instructions on how to obtain death certificates from state and county offices is the RecordsRoom
Cemetery Offices: Each active
cemetery has an office that maintains records of who is interred at the
cemetery and who was moved from that cemetery to another. The offices
are always more than happy to look up a name in their records, free of
charge. Often, they will mail or fax you copies of the burial records,
and may even supply a map pinpointing the exact location. Public
cemeteries are operated by the "cemetery district" responsible for a
defined geographic area.
Funeral.com has a directory of active cemeteries in the United States with addresses and phone numbers.
Websites for cemetery districts can usually be found by running a search for "cemetery district" on any popular Internet Search Engine.
Cemetery Societies: A Cemetery
society is a group of people who take interest in a particular cemetery
and volunteer their services. Often, the cemetery is inactive, and has
no other means of maintenance. Some societies take interest in a
historic cemetery already under the management of a government agency.
These societies record the history of the cemeteries and have usually
taken an inventory of all burials.
Only a handful of societies have its own website. Most, if not all, societies are operated out of someone's home. Local genealogical societies are usually aware of these societies and know how to contact them.
Funeral Homes: Also referred to
as "mortuaries", funeral homes provide funeral services. Funeral homes
are often happy to look up the name of a decedent to tell you if they
handled the funeral service, and can often tell you where the decedent
is interred.
Another way to look up funeral homes on
the Internet is by using an
Internet yellow-pages. You can select a state, and search on "funeral".
The decedent's religion and the
church they attended can be a clue in finding their burial location.
Churches often maintained a cemetery on or near their location. Often
these cemeteries are available only to church members or someone of that
specific religion.
Was the decedent retired from
military service or did they die while serving in the military? Retired
military personnel are eligible for free burials at a national cemetery.
Quite often, these people elect to be buried there for economical
reasons and for pride. One must serve at least 20 years in the military
in order to be eligible for "retired status". Each large city has at
least one national cemetery.
The National Cemetery Administration is responsible for operating the cemeteries in the national cemetery system. Their website provides a list of the cemeteries with addresses and phone numbers, as well as information on how to obtain military records.
Was the family well off or
poor? Families with little money often bury their dead in public
cemeteries. Public cemeteries offer burials at nominal cost. These
cemeteries are operated by "cemetery districts", which are under the
jurisdiction of a city, county, or parish government. A cemetery
district usually has two or three cemeteries in operation, and these
cemeteries are usually among the oldest operating cemeteries in the
area. These cemeteries are often named after the geographic region they
are located in: "Anaheim Cemetery".
Conversely, wealthy families tend to bury their dead in privately owned and operated cemeteries, where they can purchase enough land to buffer themselves from other graves, build mausoleums, and erect monuments. These cemeteries usually have picturesque names such as "Shady Oaks Glen", or "Lilac Hills".
Family Cemeteries: In the past
it wasn't unusual for families living in rural areas to start a family
burial plot on their property.