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I would check the area funeral homes. Usually, even poor people had a funeral due to the tradition with a funeral home that prepared the body.
If this is a small community, chances are that the funeral home that is still in the area probably was the same one that has always been in the area.
I've used some funeral home ledger/records in my research and they are treasure troves. Practically of them just had a bunch of stuff in their basement.
If they were a particular ethnicity/national origin in the community and it was kind of a larger community, usually there is a funeral home that may be specific to that ethnic group. I am black and there is a tradition of black funeral homes in nearly every place in the country (rural and urban) so it is always easy to find out who did the funeral. I also have helped some friends with trees who were Hungarian, Polish, and of German ancestry. Our area had funeral homes for each ethnic group even out in rural areas, many of them would use a particular funeral home and many of them, even when they were sold to new owners, kept the old ledgers of the previous funeral home owner. I have never found this information online. One of the funeral homes in my hometown, someone did a PhD thesis on the black population using funeral home records and I came across that paper and it was fascinating and opened up a great resource for me in my research. The one they did the dissertation about, I've found that 5 generations of my family have been buried by that home. The author just contacted the funeral home in the early 2000s and asked if they had records of the original owner and they did. The original owner opened up his home in 1912, so they had nearly 100 years of records of black resident burials. That original owner was the only black funeral director for almost 40 years so he did all the black resident burials. I've found that we also had a Polish funeral home director who opened up around 1910 who was similar and I've contacted that home and they also had all the original records.
This may be a long shot in a smaller community, but I'd honestly look into it if I were you and just use the yellow pages online and call funeral homes in the vicinity of where your ancestors lived if you no longer reside in that area. My grandmother IL was a funeral home director in a small community in the south an she bought her home in the 1970s but also inherited the 2 previous owners records, which dated back to the early 1900s.
That's interesting. I did actually contact a funeral home for my great grandmother who died in 1964. I don't know when the change was made to using funeral homes. I've seen pictures of my great uncle who died in 1925 when he was three years old. The pictures were made after his death. IIRC, those pictures appeared to have been taken at home. This was in a rural state in a rural area. The family probably would have avoided extra costs if they could have. I have a death certificate for a family member who died in 1919. I need to go look that up and see what it says.
I also know the names of two doctors that were used in 1918 and 1925. I may be able to follow up something on that. I'm curious about how the current Hippa laws affect old records. I was told several years ago that the local hospital keeps records for 100 years before making them public. I'm not sure if that is still true.
That's interesting. I did actually contact a funeral home for my great grandmother who died in 1964. I don't know when the change was made to using funeral homes. I've seen pictures of my great uncle who died in 1925 when he was three years old. The pictures were made after his death. IIRC, those pictures appeared to have been taken at home. This was in a rural state in a rural area. The family probably would have avoided extra costs if they could have. I have a death certificate for a family member who died in 1919. I need to go look that up and see what it says.
I also know the names of two doctors that were used in 1918 and 1925. I may be able to follow up something on that. I'm curious about how the current Hippa laws affect old records. I was told several years ago that the local hospital keeps records for 100 years before making them public. I'm not sure if that is still true.
I'm also not sure about HIPPA laws and genealogical records. I honestly have never looked at old hospital records, even though I do have a list of people who I want to look up once I get around to it. But they were in state hospitals (two were in sanitoriums so I want to know what was going on with them). Research I've looked into on state hospitals where I live show that the state usually filed those records with archive organizations, either local/county or state archives. But I'm not sure what they'll let you look at or if there are any criteria (certain type of direct relative relation) for viewing those records prior to a certain time period. I know from working in a government world that records are usually classified for a minimum of 70 years, similar to census records basically (3 more years until the 1950 census! ).
But I do think checking the death certs for the cemetery and funeral home may be worthwhile.
In my area funeral homes performing services have been a "thing" since the late 1800s, around the 1880s. The county started keeping a death register showing where people were buried and what they died of in the 1840s. Sometimes cemetery records are helpful but not usually in my experience, and in my area for deaths prior to 1900.
Funeral homes started being listed on death certificates where I live (Ohio) around 1900. I have a 3rd great grandmother who died in 1903 and hers was the first in my family that listed a funeral home. That death preceded the black funeral home director in our area as did another 3rd great grandfather who died in 1910. Both of them were buried by one of the first homes in our area and they also, fortunately still had records that had been handed down to future generations of funeral home directors. That home has more information on the deceased than our early municipal cemeteries do.
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