ILLINOIS STATE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

CEMETERY LOCATION PROJECT

Since the ISGS website is location of cemeteries only, I often get questions about how to find information about burials. Listed below are some suggestions:

• Try the county GenWeb site

• Try the county IL Trails site

• Try the tombstone transcription site at  http://usgwtombstones.org/illinois/illinois.html   (Please remember that some societies generate revenue by publishing cemeteries in book form.)

• Try the local society site.

• The local society may have published it in their quarterly or a county close to it may have published it (i.e. - Logan county was transcribed by Macon County Genealogical Society in its early years), so try PERSI (Periodical Source Index).

• Interlibrary loan is also a possibility if the cemetery has been published in a separate book.

• Check the yellow pages for cemeteries in the county and write to them.

• If the person died after 1917 and before 1942, there is a possibility of a death certificate that would pinpoint the cemetery. You may contact the Illinois State Archives at http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/archives.html and ask them to check the index to the death certificates. If the person died before 1917, there is a possibility that there might be a death certificate at the county level. If the person died after 1942, you should obtain the death certificate from the county that he/she died in.

• Join the county news list if one exists. Someone may be able to answer your question. Or place a query both with the quarterly and the on-line site. You never know who may be willing to assist you!

• Don't know the county for a city? Please use the form at http://geonames.usgs.gov/ and indicate that you are looking for a "populated place".

• Try contacting a funeral home in the area as they may know the caretaker. Again check the yellow pages.

• For an obituary, write the Illinois State Historical and request the obituary. You must provide specific information. The library staff will look for the obituary as time permits.
  
  ILLINOIS RESIDENTS:

• A non refundable copy fee of $1.00 must accompany each letter. We do not recommend sending cash, but rather encourage payment by check or money order payable to the Illinois State Historical Library.
• No more than two (2) search requests per letter.
  
• Provide specific information - individual's full name and exact date and place ( month, day, and year as well as city/town and county where death occurred.
• Each letter must include a self-addressed, stamped, business-size envelope.
• 
  
  OUT OF STATE RESIDENTS:

• A non refundable fee of $10.00 per search must accompany each search request. We do not recommend sending cash, but encourage payment by check or money order payable to the Illinois State Historical Library.
  
• No more than four (4) search requests per letter.
  
• Provide specific information - individual's full name and exact date and place ( month, day, and year as well as city/town and county where death occurred.
• 
  
  If you do not have the specific information needed for a reasonable search by the Library staff, you may borrow the newspaper on microfilm via interlibrary loan through your local library to do your own research. (United States only).

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