Americans rely heavily on the censuses for family group information. But when searching for children or women who lived prior to 1900 in the United States, these records are not reliable. Infant mortality was high, and children who were born and died between census enumerations don't appear on the census. If you are looking for a woman in the U.S. who died before the 1850 federal census enumeration, the only information you'll find under her own name might be on her tombstone or in a cemetery card file. Tombstone inscriptions, cemetery records, or undertaker records might be the only tangible evidence of these lives. The Family Tutor for Basic Genealogy Records <http://www.uftree.com>, by Johni Cerny, offers this advice. 

Start your cemetery search by finding the names and addresses of churches in areas where your ancestor may have died. The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution has a Web site for locating cemeteries

Churches with affiliated burial grounds usually kept records of interments in their ecclesiastical registers (sometimes called "Sexton's Books"). The local minister might be able to tell you where these registers are now -- in the original meetinghouse, a central church archive, in the possession of the heirs of the then-presiding minister, or at the office of the current minister. Also, thousands of church burial registers have been microfilmed and can be found in genealogical collections, or at the LDS Family History Library and Family History Centers.

Until about the mid-20th century, most churches were constructed on lots large enough to provide their members with burial facilities. As cities and congregations grew, burial yards were established in outlying areas. These cemeteries may have index cards listing information about those buried on their premises. You also will find published abstracts of thousands of church, public, and family cemeteries in large archives and libraries with genealogy collections.

Also search mortuary records. Morticians kept detailed records for accounting purposes. In some places, morticians or funeral directors gathered the information recorded on the death certificate, obtained burial permits, and arranged to ship the deceased to their next-of-kin.

If you know where a relative died, check "The Red Book," published by the National Directory of Morticians  for the names and addresses of morticians and funeral directors in that location. You may also find the name of the undertaker or funeral home on the death certificate. If the mortuary is no longer in business, its files may be in the custody of the county clerk, the local library, or the local historical society.

In the files you may find funeral or burial registers, funeral books, funeral cards, and even telegrams or correspondence to the next-of-kin. Those records may contain the deceased's date and place of birth, date and place of death, parents' names and residence, spouse's name and residence, occupation, military service, religious affiliation, fraternal organizations, and survivors. If possible, capture an electronic image of that document. It is a snap to add it to your Ultimate Family Tree data and then print it in your family history.

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Written by Brian Mavrogeorge, Senior Development Manager The Learning Company Previously published by RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, RootsWeb Review, Vol. 2, No. 1, 6 January 1999. Please visit RootsWeb's main Web page