Quite a number of reasons come to mind as to why one might seek to find a grave in California. You might be looking to find a grave of a long lost family relative. You might be conducting a genealogical research or maybe looking to find a grave of a famous figure. Whatever the reason behind a need to know how to find a grave in California, these ideas are sure to point you on the right direction.
It might seem a bit intimidating to find a grave especially in California, a huge state with the biggest population, but it is a possible. This article aims to give you the places and methods where such a people lookup process can be done easily.
Information Necessary for a Grave Search in California
Before embarking on your search for the grave, you will need to first have the full name of the person you are looking to find. Other helpful details would be to know their date of birth, where they lived and date of death. You might not necessarily have the exact dates but a rough estimate will do on a search.
Having a basic idea of the region where the person lived might also prove helpful in case you are not familiar with the town or city they were buried in.
It might happen that you are familiar with the cemetery where the person was buried in California. You might try finding out if the cemetery has a website where you can look up the person. If they don’t, you might consider calling them and ask them to assist you.
It is not that hard to find contact details on a cemetery if you look it up online. It would be a good idea to also request for a map when talking to them, if there is none available online. That way, it would be easy to make your way to the grave.
Besides the above listed details to finding someone’s grave in California, there are other details that might prove a difference maker in your search. It might happen that the person you seek to find the grave for belonged to a particular religious group. They might be buried in a cemetery of that particular faith.
It might also happen that the person was an army veteran. It is possible that their grave will be in a cemetery of veterans. If there are ways to find out more information on the person such as this, you will need to get it.
Resources for Locating a Grave in California
There are numerous resources online that you can use to locate someone’s grave in California. Listed below are some of those you can try.
Find a Grave
This site prides itself in being the largest gravesite in the entire world with over 210 million memorials created since its inception in 1995. It allows searches with first name, middle name, last name, year born, year died and cemetery location.
The site also allows you to search from Cemeteries in California which are listed in all the 58 counties.
Family Search
Family Search has a step by guide on how to find cemeteries in California from its catalog, county level and town level.
The VA’s Website
This site is a great source if you are looking to find a grave of someone who served in the army. It has a section on it that list details on cemeteries of people who served in the army. You can alternatively call them if you your search hit a dead end from here. They might be able to assist you.
The site not only enable you to find cemetery information on someone but also contact the website, get directions to a cemetery, check out burial schedules and post tributes and photos on Veterans memorial page in their honour.
Interment
Interment offers cemetery records that were acquired from California cemeteries, municipalities, associations, churches and genealogists. These records have not been tempered with and they are exactly as they were from their original sources. Any wrong information from any of the records is from the original record.
Cemetery searches offered on the site are totally free. You can search using the search bar found on the site or select a county to search from out of those listed in alphabetical order.
Other Possible Alternatives
Google is a well-known search engine that sure produces results. A Google search might be the solution to your problem. You can simple type in the name of the person on Google’s search bar accompanied by the word ‘obituary’ and start your search. It might happen that the information is available from here.
You can alternate your search by searching with the name and including words like ‘grave’ or ‘burial location’.
These are some of the choices at your disposal on how to find a grave in California. Even though such a process might take time, but the bottom line is, it can be done.