boyfriends mom died about 20 years ago in calif. when he was 4, how can we find her burial site without paying

Question

approximately 20 years ago my boyfriends mom passed away, he was raised by state agencies. we want to locate her burial site but we can't afford to pay for information. how can we locate her with little information? only know her name(not sure of spelling)not sure what year she died(approximately 20 years ago) fairly sure she's buried in california, possibly around the sacramento area? any and all information is greatly appreciated. i would really like to be able to help him find his deceased moms burial site. he's bitter about being an orphan(no fathers name on his birth certificate), but this may help him get some closure or at least be able to move forward.

Answer 1

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/

Try this link, it's the social security death index database and is free through rootsweb... you can look up by name, place, date of death etc... to get more accurate information... would give you a starting point.. then, can get on various cemetary and internment sites for the area and see where she is buried. Then, you could also do searches online for obituaries for her (try also posting to rootsweb message boards for the area - usually there are people who are willing to do free lookups). If you find the specific county - you could write for her death certificate. It would list information that might be of interest. Best of luck to you in your endeavors - I'm always available if you need more advice / suggestions. Been doing genealogy for over 15 years.

Answer 2

The previous answers are all good ones. I would also try familysearch.org which is the Mormon's geneaology site. They often have death certificate information so you can find out where she died and the city where she's buried. From that point you can contact the local courthouse and obtain a death certificate which might include the funeral home's name or whoever was responsible for the body for burial. I would also try contacting the state agencies that were responsible for him - they may have this information in his file. Good Luck.

Answer 3

Since your b'friend is age 24, he is an adult, and if he can be specific about the county he lived in as a child, it is POSSIBLE he could petition the court to see his records. I would think that these should be available to him, since it was not an adoption record, which are normally sealed. What he really needs is the exact name and close enough date. There is always the POSSIBILITY that she lost custody, and died at a later time.
Since he does have his own birth certificate, then I think he would qualify for any proof if needed for access to her death certificate. Beyond showing where she is buried, it is hoped that her death cert. SHOULD also show the names of her parents, and where they are from.
What I hear is that you have not considered that he may have living relatives out there.
You can reach me by email (see my profile), and I'd be happy to help find what we can.

Answer 4

Unfortunately it will be very difficult without a little more information. If you knew what county she died in you could go to the hall of records or coroners office and try and look up her death certificate. Since you don't really know how to spell her name it will make it complicated as there are many different ways to spell that same name (ie Cathi, Kathi, Kathy, Cathy, Cathie, Kathie, Katherine, Catherine, Cathryn, Kathryn etc....). You really need a little more information if you are going to have any chance of success and not get horribly frustrated.

You may want to try going to a Genealogy list and searching or a more specific name, I know the LDS has a massive data bate and on on line site to look up your ancestors. Or you can use http://www.ancestry.com/ where you put in your name (or your boyfriends) and they will list your known ancestors...

Answer 5

I don't know what you have in USA but in England we can go to our Family Records Office in London (or access it via Internet) to find out information. I don't know if you have an equivalent there? If you have an idea where she came from, or may have been buried, maybe it is worth writing to the local churches to see if they keep records, and if so, would they allow you to have a look at them? There are some sites on the Internet that you can access if you know roughtly when and where she died, how old she was when she died, and her full name at that time together with her date of birth if you know it. It may also help to go to the local authorities who took care of your boyfriend when he was young, to see what information they may have on him. That sort of information is available and free in the UK but again, I don't know what is available to you in the USA. Best of luck!

Answer 6

You are in luck. Roots Web has death records for just 3 states, and California is one of them:

http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi

9,366,786 records from 1940 thru 1997

The search engine has a "Soundex" option, which means "sounds like", next to the surname field.

So - find her; it will tell you exactly when she died and in what county. Then you can try for an obituary;

http://www.tedpack.org/obit.html

tells how and has links. If you don't get an obit, you'll have to write (and pay) for a death certificate, which will tell you what funeral home and/or cemetery she went to. If all it has is a funeral home, you'll have to contact them to get the cemetery.

Answer 7

Try this site Ancestry.com. You can do free searches, and it will tell you what city she passed away in. Then you can call the Register of Deeds office and they can tell you what cemetery she was buried in. Then contact the cemetery and they can tell you where her grave site is located. Good luck on your journey.

Answer 8

Go to your local library, and ask if they have a genealogy librarian. If they do, s/he may be able to help track down the information. Bring a copy of your boyfriend's birth certificate if you have one to help them trace it down better.

Answer 9

Go to the public library. Ask the librarian to help you locate the obituary for her that was probably in the local newspaper.

Answer 10

Hey tinatari,

Try some of the Cemetery sites below, and Cindi's list has many more.