Are you looking for an ancestor and don’t know where to look next? Maybe you need to look in a cemetery! Cemetery records and tombstones can provide great clues for the family historian. That might seem obvious, but it can be tricky figuring out which cemetery to look in. If you are doing searches for local people, a super resource is the Alberta Family Histories Society cemetery index. This nominal index is available on-line, just click on ‘searchable index’ and type in the surname you are searching for, capitalizing the appropriate letters. You may find your ancestor’s birth and death dates and cemetery location have been recorded by the volunteers of this society. Offered for sale are CDs or DVDs with more detailed information about the burials, which may include inscription specifics or photos of the tombstone. Some libraries or archives may have copies of these that you can use for free.

If you know the cemetery where your ancestor is interred you may be able to contact the local cemetery office. They can give you information such as the specific location of the burial, other family members who share the plot, who paid for the monument if one exists and what the inscription may be.

Using cemetery information I have been able to discover birth and death dates of the person in question, previously unknown family members, relationships between individuals, and how the individual was viewed by contemporaries. Even the style of the tombstone and the symbols engraved on it can reveal clues about your ancestor’s religion and socio-economic status. Cemeteries are great places to unearth your family history.

This article was originally printed in the Bergen News and is being reprinted with permission.