Reference Book Will Direct You To Funeral Directors

In the Jan.-Feb. 1989 issue of Heritage Quest magazine, Mona Gee Wallace wrote “Researching with the Yellow Book of Funeral Directors.” This resource may be new to you, and is one you will be delighted to learn more about.

The National Yellow Book of Funeral Directors can be a big help to anyone looking for family information. This annually-published volume lists all the funeral homes in the United States and Canada. The listing is by state, town and lastly by county. The population of the town is given, as are the area and zip codes. The complete name and street address of any funeral homes in that town are listed in alphabetical order.

This book was compiled for the use of funeral directors, but is of great use to genealogists. If you know that your ancestor died in the little town of Adams, Nebraska, but that’s about all you know about old Grandpa; then a letter to the funeral home there may bring you all sorts of good information. The employees of funeral homes also seem to be the nicest, most helpful folks.

For example, I have often wandered in Fairmount Cemetery past the tombstones of the Tannatt family. There are four family members buried there: Miriam Tannatt Merriam, Elizabeth Forster Tannatt, Elizabeth Tappon Tannatt and Gen. Thomas R. Tannatt, 1838-1913. It was the general that I often wondered about - what war would he have been general in?

A visit to Hennessey Funeral Home shed some light on this veteran. According to the 1913 record, he was Thomas Redding Tannatt, a retired Army officer, born in New York. His father was James Tannatt, born in England; and his mother Mary Gilmon, was born in Scotland. The funeral home record didn’t answer all my questions about the good general, but did make more of him than just a name chiseled in stone (Funeral homes are usually reluctant to release funeral information to non-family members, so do state the relationship when you write or visit).

Use the Yellow Book for Funeral Directors to locate more information on your ancestor via his or her funeral record. This book can be found at some area Family History Centers, and the genealogy section of the downtown Spokane Public Library. All funeral homes have a copy, and if the staff is not too busy, they will let you use theirs. When you have the name of the town or county funeral home and when you write, state the name of your ancestor and the date of his or her death. Always include a stamped, selfaddressed envelope, and $1 for the copies you hope they’ll find.

Doris Woodward, editor of the Bulletin of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society, told me far too many genealogists take what they find in the International Genealogical Index and Ancestral File as “gospel,” instead of as clues or partial answers.

The IGI is a computerized database of many millions of individual names, listed with parents or spouse and a specific date and place. The IGI was created for religious reasons by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but has always been a public source of information to all genealogists. At the computer, you type in a name, specify a country, and if that name is in the file from a specific set of sources. Then you’ll see the name highlighted on the screen.

The Ancestral File is a newer computerized family-linked database. To use Ancestral File, you type in the name of an ancestor; if the information has been submitted by somebody, then enter that name. Then their name along with any ancestors or descendants of that person will appear on the computer screen.

There are millions of names in these files, and surely some of your ancestral names will be there. But, you will just as surely not find every name in these databases. Beginners shouldn’t give up just because they didn’t find sought-after names in these databases. For who do find names, don’t stop there! A source citation of “IGI” or “Ancestral File” is not good enough.

The proper source citation is to list exactly where the information in these files was originally found; or in some cases, who submitted the information.

The information contained in the IGI generally comes from two major sources. Either the data is from submissions from genealogists sharing their information, and from folks doing records’ extractions. The Family History Library has microfilmed an incredible amount of records, including millions of church records.

These could be records from churches of any denomination, from most any country. Paper copies of the microfilms are given to volunteer extractors who carefully read them and type the information into a computer program. This information is then transferred to the IGI.

If you find your ancestor’s name in the IGI, you will want to see which source applies to your record. If the name is there from an individual submission, then you have a cousin to contact! If the name is there from a church record, then you will want to scrutinize that entire record - perhaps other family members were active in that same congregation.

The information in the Ancestral File comes directly from genealogists like you and me. It is a newer compilation (usually within the last decade). Every genealogist is encouraged to submit their pedigree and family group information into Ancestral File because it is a well-known fact that by sharing genealogy, we all benefit. If you find your family in Ancestral File, you can also find the name of the submitter, too - another cousin.

The Personal Ancestral File home-use program was designed to compliment the Ancestral File found under the FamilySearch (sic) computer program. If you wish to add your family information to this database, you must use PAF or any Gedcom-compatible program to do so. Even if you don’t have a computer, or a Gedcom compatible program, you may use both at any Family History Center. The volunteers will be happy to assist you.

Make it a mid-year resolution: promise never again to accept “IGI” or “Ancestral File” as a source, for they really are not complete sources. These databases will direct you to the source.

Today’s laugh: You are the most important nut on your family tree.