California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

This wiki article describes a collection that is available for free online at FamilySearch Record Search -- Pilot Site. To access the collection, see California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records 1835-1931

Collection Time Period
This collection includes records for the years 1835-1931.

Collection History
This set is a collection of various records maintained by several San Francisco funeral homes, including N. Gray and Co., (records of the Burlingame and San Francisco branches), Halsted and Co. Undertakers, H.F. Suhr &amp; Co., Godeau Funeral Service, (branches in San Francisco and Stockton), George H. Clark Funeral Home (Sacramento), Clark &amp; Booth Funeral Directors (Sacramento), Kremple &amp; Halsted-Undertakers, W.P. Peterson &amp; Co., and H.W. Gantner (Gantner Bros.) Several different types of records were created.

Why This Collection Was Created
Records were created by funeral homes to record financial transactions and keep a record of their business activities.

Collection Reliability
Information pertaining to death is probably fairly reliable, including cause and date of death, place of residence, and name of attending physician. Other information is dependent upon the reliability of the informant.

Collection Description
Some records are handwritten on blank paper. Others are written on pre-printed forms, depending on the type of record. Most are arranged chronologically and include a variety of notes and comments.

Collection Content
Key genealogical facts found in most of these records are:


 * name of the deceased
 * age at death
 * place of death
 * cause of death

How To Use The Collection
Indexes are arranged alphabetically by surname, grouped by type of record. Some indexes will index the names of the deceased, others will index the persons making the funeral and financial arrangements, and others will index both. Some indexes refer to only the name and page number. Others may also include death and/or burial dates, the age at time of death, birth place, residence, cause of death, grave site, cemetery name, and the persons making funeral and financial arrangements. Some page numbers were incorrectly transcribed when the indexes were created and such records are usually found within a page or two of the page given. The earlier index is more complete than the later index and indexes are often incomplete. Sometimes there are separate indexes for person with given names only and Chinese and Japanese burials.

Funeral record books were written on pre-printed forms and were arranged chronologically. Most give the name of the deceased, his age, birth place, death date, burial date, cause of death, burial site, doctor’s or coroner’s name, the person(s) making the funeral/financial arrangements, place of residence, relationship to the deceased, place and time of funeral, clergy’s name and itemized funeral arrangements. Some funeral records also include the physician’s certificate of death, the deceased person’s occupation, religion, marital status, race, parents’ names, and their birth places. Some also include an obituary.

Day books are daily handwritten account books organized chronologically. Information included varies greatly. Day books contain the name of the person making the arrangements, place of residence, the name of the deceased and may contain cause and date of death, age, place of nativity, burial place, doctor or coroner’s name and financial data. Some include obituaries.

Burial books are lists kept chronologically containing the burial date, the name of the deceased, age at death, birthplace, cause of death, burial site, and the undertaker. Registers of deaths were kept chronologically, listing the name of the deceased, age, birthplace, death date, sex, where interred, plot description, cause of death, physician or entity making the death certificate, place of death, and remarks.

Related Articles
Other wiki articles that relate to this topic: California Cemeteries

Bibliographic Information:
California. Various funeral homes located throughout the San Francisco area. Digital images of originals housed at the San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco History Archive Center, San Francisco, California.