The Ancestor Hunt regularly adds and updates new collection links, as well as searches for and fixes broken links.
(This page's most recent update is September 2024)
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Mortuary and funeral home records are yet another resource that genealogy researchers rarely use. They are difficult to obtain, especially in hard copies from the original funeral home. You can contact them, but often, mortuaries went out of business or were sold to another company. And many of the original records have been lost or destroyed.
Never fear though, there are many mortuary records that have been digitized and made available online.
Online record collections are available from subscription sites such as Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.
But other state and local collections are also available, and some are indexes only (from ledger books). And some are free and available online!
Here are some articles that may entice you to research Mortuary and Funeral Home records:
- FamilySearch – Funeral Home Records
- Finding Funeral Home Records for Your Ancestors
- Funeral Home Records: Telling Stories of the Dearly Departed
- 15 Reasons Why Searching Mortuary and Funeral Home Records Is a Gold Mine!
Have you ever looked at a mortuary record? There is an abundance of great information available! Here is a list of some of the information on such a record, besides the brand and cost of the casket:
- Name of informant and person paying for the service
- Cause of death
- Address of the deceased
- Burial location “to be”
- In some cases – the name of the father and mother
- Name of attending physician as well as hospital or place of death
- Date of birth
- Date of death
- Date of planned burial
- Obituary from multiple newspapers
- Occupation
- Birth Place
- Marital Status
- Gender
- Race
- Plus much more
Below are links to collections that are online and available for free. Be aware that some collections have full mortuary records, some are glorified death indexes, and some are just indexes to the actual mortuary records.
Note: Some of the links listed below take you to a FamilySearch Collection of digital images. Near the bottom of the page under Film/Digital Notes is the name of each sub-collection. If there is a camera icon at the right of the name (in the Format column) then the collections’ images are browsable. If there is a camera with a key icon, it is only available at a Family History Center or affiliated library. If there is a film reel icon, then it is only available in microfilm format, not digital. To take full advantage make sure that you are logged in to FamilySearch. The results may be different if you are signed in, rather than not.
Arkansas Mortuary and Funeral Home Records
- Augusta, Rhodes and Son Mortuary, Funeral Records, 1939-1977
- Blytheville, Cobb Funeral Home, Records
- Blytheville, Holt Funeral Home, Records, 24 May 1937-22 July 1955
- Clark County, Wiley Funeral Home Records, 1941-1968
- Cleveland County, Buie Funeral Home Records, Name Index, 1941-1956
- DeQueen, Records of Elbert E. Sibert, Undertaker
- Des Arc, Caskey Burial Association, Funeral Records, 1928-1978
- Des Arc, Caskey Funeral Home, Record of Funerals, V. 1-2, 1919-1928
- DeWitt, Essex Funeral Home, Name Index, 1915-1995
- DeWitt, Essex Funeral Home, Records, 1915-1943
- England, Wilson Funeral Home, Records, 1934-1982
- Faulkner County, Pence Funeral Home Records, Name Index
- Fort Smith, Birnies Funeral Home, Indexes
- Fort Smith, Putnam Funeral Home, Indexes
- Greenwood, McConnell Funeral Home Record Books Indexes, 1918-1941
- Helena, Nevils Mortuary, Record of Funerals, 1920-1934
- Hot Springs, Gross Funeral Home Records
- Hot Springs, Gross Mortuary, Record Book, 1874-1922
- Hot Springs, Gross Mortuary’s Oldest Records, 1874-1889
- Jackson County, Burial Records
- Little Rock, Dubisson Funeral Home Records, 1925-1985
- Marshall, Coffman Funeral Home, 1937-1988
- Miller County, Bowden Funeral Home Records Index, 1921-1952
- Miller County, Texarkana Funeral Home, Jndex, 2002
- Northwest Arkansas, Luginbuel Funeral Home, Genealogy Records
- Pine Bluff, Hale-South Funeral Home, Records, 1954-1984
- Pine Bluff, McFadden Funeral Home, Records, 1891-1954
- Prescott, Cornish Funeral Home, Records, 1910-1977
- Sebastian County, Birnies Funeral Home Records Beginning in 1880’s
- Sebastian County, Old McConnell Funeral Home Records 1918-41
- Sebastian County, Old Putman Funeral Home Records
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!