My grandfather payed for his funeral 30 years ago. However not a signal funeral home has the paper work or the records for my grandmothers funeral 20years ago. The records were lost when my sisters home was destroyed in a fire. What do I do?
It sounds like your dad purchased a funeral package many years ago and you don't know who he purchased it from. If he doesn't have the paperwork proving he paid, then I would go to all the funeral homes that were near his residence at that time and ask them to check their records.
Sometimes libraries have information in their city directories that may list those funeral homes from that time frame. That may or may not be available on line. And as someone said above. The cemetery should know which funeral home was used when your grandmother was buried. Do you think he would have used the same one?
My first suggestion is to contact the local paper for the town that grannie died in. Ask how far back they have obits on-line & how to research for beyond that date. Then you do whatever to go to read grannies obit. You may need to go to the newspaper to look at the files in microfiche ( and feel ancient). If the newspaper is now defunct, then you do this at the local library. Print out the obit.
The FH name will be in grannies obit. Then contact that FH. Now they probably aren't in biz anymore, so you send a letter to whatever board or agency regulates FH for your state that you need to use a policy held by that now defunct FH for your grandfathers funeral. Either the board will have the records & policies or will give you the name of the group that took over the policies.
The cemetery may or may not be of use. The cemetery may not have any funeral policies. For my parents the funeral policy is with a FH which has no affiliation with the catholic cemetery where my dad has his mausoleum niche. As a matter of fact, the cemetery has its own set of charges to open, close, "reset" the vault, service the grounds for burial that is NOT included in my moms paid up funeral policy. Thus seems to be very common with catholic cemetaries.
Also the old policy may not pay for all now needed. For my mom, when she did the policy in the 1980's the police escort was a service the city provided for free. Not anymore! Also back then those funeral cards ( picture of a saint with details of the deceased on the back - they can be quite ornate & collectible) were provided free, again not anymore.
Sometimes libraries have information in their city directories that may list those funeral homes from that time frame. That may or may not be available on line. And as someone said above. The cemetery should know which funeral home was used when your grandmother was buried. Do you think he would have used the same one?
My first suggestion is to contact the local paper for the town that grannie died in. Ask how far back they have obits on-line & how to research for beyond that date. Then you do whatever to go to read grannies obit. You may need to go to the newspaper to look at the files in microfiche ( and feel ancient). If the newspaper is now defunct, then you do this at the local library. Print out the obit.
The FH name will be in grannies obit. Then contact that FH. Now they probably aren't in biz anymore, so you send a letter to whatever board or agency regulates FH for your state that you need to use a policy held by that now defunct FH for your grandfathers funeral. Either the board will have the records & policies or will give you the name of the group that took over the policies.
The cemetery may or may not be of use. The cemetery may not have any funeral policies. For my parents the funeral policy is with a FH which has no affiliation with the catholic cemetery where my dad has his mausoleum niche. As a matter of fact, the cemetery has its own set of charges to open, close, "reset" the vault, service the grounds for burial that is NOT included in my moms paid up funeral policy. Thus seems to be very common with catholic cemetaries.
Also the old policy may not pay for all now needed. For my mom, when she did the policy in the 1980's the police escort was a service the city provided for free. Not anymore! Also back then those funeral cards ( picture of a saint with details of the deceased on the back - they can be quite ornate & collectible) were provided free, again not anymore.
Good luck being nancy drew!