The most reliable way to find where someone is buried is to start with the death itself: a death certificate, obituary or funeral home record will usually name the cemetery. Once you know the cemetery, its office can often tell you the exact section, lot and grave. Online indexes such as Find a Grave and BillionGraves are useful shortcuts, but they work best as a starting point that you then confirm.
This guide walks through the steps in the order that usually saves the most time.
Step 1: Gather what you already know
Before searching anywhere, write down everything you have, even if it feels vague:
- Full name, including middle name, nicknames and a maiden name for married women
- Approximate date of death, or at least the decade
- Where the person lived at the end of their life, and where they grew up
- Religion or congregation, if any
- Military service
- Names of a spouse, parents or children
Family members are often the fastest source of all. An aunt may remember the funeral, or a cousin may have the memorial folder from the service. Family Bibles, letters, sympathy cards and old photographs of a grave can each point to the cemetery.
Step 2: Find the death certificate
In the US, death certificates are kept by the state vital records office, and often also by the county or city where the death happened. Most modern certificates include a line for the place of disposition: the name and location of the cemetery or crematory, along with the funeral home that handled the arrangements.
Access rules vary by state. Recent certificates are often restricted to close relatives or people with a legal interest, while older ones are frequently open and may be held by the state archives. Many states have indexed or digitized older death records, and some are searchable through genealogy websites and archives.
If the certificate names a crematory rather than a cemetery, keep in mind that the ashes may have been buried, placed in a niche, kept by family or scattered. The funeral home is the next stop in that case.
Step 3: Look for an obituary
Obituaries and death notices commonly name the funeral home and the place of burial or interment. Where to look depends on the era:
- Recent deaths: funeral home websites (most post obituaries online) and newspaper obituary pages
- The last few decades: newspaper archives, often available free through a public library card
- Older deaths: digitized historic newspapers, including the Library of Congress Chronicling America collection, plus microfilm at the local library or historical society
Search for variations of the name, and try searching just the surname with the town and year. Small-town papers often ran a short notice at the time of death and a longer account of the funeral a week later.
Step 4: Contact the funeral home
If you know which funeral home handled the arrangements, call and ask. Funeral homes keep records of the services they provided, including where the burial or cremation took place. Some are happy to help family members and researchers; others will only share details with next of kin. If the original business has closed or merged, a local funeral home can often tell you who holds the old records.
Step 5: Call the cemetery office
Once you have a likely cemetery, contact its office. Most active cemeteries keep interment records listing who is buried where, organized by section, lot and grave number. Ask for:
- Confirmation that the person is buried there
- The section, lot or row, and grave number
- A map of the cemetery, or directions to the grave
- Whether the grave is marked
Staff are usually glad to help, though small cemeteries may have limited office hours or rely on volunteers. Religious cemeteries may keep their records at the parish or congregation office instead. If you need to find the cemetery's contact details, you can search the directory by name or browse by state. Our guide on how cemetery plots are organized explains how to read the section and lot numbers once you have them.
Step 6: Check online grave indexes
Several free, volunteer-built websites index graves across the country:
- Find a Grave lets volunteers create memorial pages with names, dates, photos and cemetery locations. It is the largest of these indexes and is especially strong for well-visited cemeteries.
- BillionGraves focuses on GPS-tagged photographs of headstones taken with a phone app, then transcribed by volunteers.
If the person was a public figure with an encyclopedia entry, try our notable burials search first. It draws on Wikidata, which records the place of burial for tens of thousands of well-known Americans, and links straight to the cemetery page.
Both are genuinely helpful, but they are only as accurate as the people who contributed. Dates can be mistyped, people with the same name get mixed up, and a memorial page doesn't always mean there is a marked grave. Treat a result as a lead and confirm it with the cemetery or an official record whenever it matters.
Step 7: Search veterans records
If the person served in the military, check the Department of Veterans Affairs Nationwide Gravesite Locator. It covers burials in VA national cemeteries, many state veterans cemeteries and some other military cemeteries, plus veterans in private cemeteries whose graves received a government headstone or marker. Arlington National Cemetery, which is run by the Army, has its own search tool called ANC Explorer.
A veteran may also be buried in a veterans section of a local cemetery. You can browse veterans cemeteries and national cemeteries to see what is near where the person lived. For background, read who qualifies for burial in a national cemetery.
Step 8: Try the wider records
If the steps above don't turn up an answer, widen the search:
- Church records. Congregations often recorded funerals and burials, especially where the church had its own cemetery.
- Local health department or county records. Some areas issued burial or transit permits.
- Probate records. Estate files sometimes include funeral home and cemetery bills.
- Local historical and genealogical societies. Many have transcribed cemeteries in their county, including small ones that are hard to find elsewhere.
- Social Security Death Index. It doesn't list burial places, but it can confirm a date of death and last residence for many people who died after the 1960s, which narrows the search.
For burials before about 1900, the approach changes quite a bit. Our guide on how to find an old grave covers county atlases, topographic maps and family burial grounds.
When the grave is unmarked
Sometimes the records confirm a burial but there is nothing on the ground. The grave may never have had a marker, a wooden marker may have rotted, or a stone may have been broken or moved. The cemetery office can often point to the exact spot from its maps. If the person was a veteran, the family may be able to request a government headstone or marker. Any new marker has to follow the cemetery's rules.