Cemetery volunteers don't work with us directly, but they often work with local cemeteries. Here are some tips to get you started finding volunteer work:
1. Identify a cemetery or cemeteries for which you would like to volunteer.
2. Find out who owns the cemetery, and who is in charge of the records—usually a sexton. For most cemeteries, you can find this info on the Utah Funeral Directors Association cemeteries directory at http://www.ufda.org/cemeteries.php.
3. Check to see if the cemetery’s records are already on the Utah Cemeteries Database (at http://history.utah.gov/research_and_collections/cemeteries/.)
4. If so, see #7.
5. If not, you may be able to help the cemetery digitize its records. This means recording the information in the sexton’s records into a database. This database provides information to family and other historians worldwide.
To learn more about the database and possible grants to organizations for digitizing records, contact Amy Oliver at 801-245-7247.
6. The cemetery should then submit the burial records you have digitized to the statewide Utah Burials Database (again, at http://history.utah.gov/research_and_collections/cemeteries/)
7. The cemetery may be interested in having you document the headstones in the cemetery by photographing and/or recording the information on the stones. This is a great service. However, the Utah Burials Database does not normally accept information from headstones, because the sexton records are the official burial records. However, in a few limited cases, we may accept burial records when sexton records do not exist.