Talk:Utah Funeral Homes

9/1 Comments from AdkinsWH 17:20, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Let's create this page that tells about funeral homes and their records. I know from personal experience that some funeral homes save things like the obit and the funeral program. Likely not so much recently, since they are computerized so much more.
 * Is there a difference from earlier files and current files? If so, generally when did the difference occur?
 * Is it worth telling people about funeral homes in Wiki? Yes, even if we only tell them that they may have some further information.
 * Let's get some examples of funeral home info. I have some Oregon examples. Can have my brother check in Boise. But those aren't Utah.

8/31/2012 email from Lois Fowles I talked with Larkin Mortuary today for about 20 minutes. IN a nutshell they don't have anything more than what is on the death certificate (other of course than the monetary arrangements which I didn't go into). Their regulations come from the State. Not required to keep records for any given number of years. Basic regulations pertain mainly to business practices. They may or may not have the "text" of the obits. They may have copies of the funeral program or may not. When transferring bodies outside the state they need a permit. Don't need one for instate. Nothing of genealogical value on the permit. Cemetery records are kept by the cemetery. Some cemeteries not connected to the funeral home and the funeral home then works with the cemetery for the burial. Their records are not public records. On occasion they do look up things for relatives. Because of "hippa" laws they are becoming much more caution about doing that and usually will tell them to go to the death certificate. While Larkin has been in business since 1885 they only have records back to about 1912 ( the individual I talked to thought.) Most funeral homes operate the same way and there would be no need for us to contact all of them. Larkin has no objection to our putting their name in wiki. I explained about wiki and told them how to look it up if they were interested. They provide the information for the death certificate usually and as we know that record goes to the county and state. NOW that I am about done with the listing of the funeral homes I have had a thought after looking at the long list for SLC. If I had to do it over again I think we could have just listed the name and linked to the Website where there was one. If not, then the complete listing would be ok. I am concerned with how we keep the list up to date if there are name, phone number, etc changes. Any ideas? Do we care? After talking with them, my conclusion is that other than the death certificate and the bill for services there are no other records. From personal experience, with my mom and dad, those are the only records that I know of from the funeral home.