When a death certificate doesn't exist, the gravestone often does. Cemetery records can give you birth and death dates, family plots, and clues to relatives buried nearby.
How to find them
- Search our ancestor database, which includes public-domain cemetery and tombstone transcriptions from across the Midwest.
- Look for the county's published cemetery transcriptions — genealogical societies and the DAR transcribed thousands of Midwestern cemeteries in the early 1900s, and many are now public domain.
- Contact the cemetery or its sexton for the burial register, which can list the plot owner and everyone buried in it.
- Use the family plot as a research tool — people buried together are usually related, and a nearby stone may crack a brick wall.
Names, dates, and places from the public record across all 12 Midwestern states.
Search the database →The catch to know about
Older stones weather and break, and small family or church cemeteries are sometimes lost entirely. A published transcription made decades ago may be the only surviving record of what a stone once said.
We trace your whole family line and write it into a book and an interactive site — flat rate, records-based, no DNA test.
See how it works →Frequently asked questions
How do I find where someone is buried for free?
Start with our free database of Midwestern cemetery and death records, then check county cemetery transcriptions and contact the cemetery office for the burial register.
What information is on a cemetery record?
Headstones and burial registers commonly give birth and death dates, and family plots reveal relationships — a spouse, parents, or children buried alongside.