Cemetery and Burial Records
Research Guides
About the Records
The Utah State Archives holds records from many publicly owned cemeteries in Utah. Cemetery and burial records generally take two forms: records documenting ownership of plots (Utah Code 8-3-1) and interment registers documenting burials within the cemetery. For genealogical research, interment registers are generally of the most use. Information in records may include the name of the deceased, birth date and place, death date and place, burial date, cause of death, grave location, and names of relatives. Burial records often give researchers information about individuals not always available in other records, and may serve as records of death prior to government-issued death certificates.
Locating Burials and Cemeteries
Most records from cemeteries are not indexed by name, outside of what may be found within individual record books. To find an individual burial record, researchers should know the place of burial and date. Sources for this information include death certificates, obituaries and death notices. The Utah State Historic Preservation Office maintains the Utah Cemetery and Burials Database, an ongoing project to document burials within the state.
Locating Records
The list of record series below is arranged by county and then by the cemetery’s governing entity. Most cemeteries in Utah are operated by municipalities, although some are operated by county governments, and it is common for unincorporated communities to create a cemetery maintenance district. The date ranges are recordkeeping dates for the records; researchers should consult the linked series inventories for details on holdings at the Archives.
Page Last Updated August 16, 2019.
About this Guide
Written by Arlene Schmuland and originally published in February 2001. Alan Barnett completely revised it in September 2013. Select records were acquired and microfilmed with assistance from a State and National Archival Partnership (SNAP) Grant funded by the National Historical Publication and Records Commission (NHPRC) in 2012-2013.