San Francisco's Old Cemetery Records

The San Francisco History Center and One City One Book programs continue on Saturday. You may have watched A Second Final Rest & Gravediggers, learned about the death and funeral culture in San Francisco from Timothy Keegan, and heard Doug Dorst in conversation about Alive in Necropolis. Please join Nancy Peterson, author of Raking the Ashes: Genealogical Strategies for Pre-1906 San Francisco Research and Research Director of California Genealogical Society, as she shares her vast knowledge about death and cemetery records.


Ms. Peterson's program will answer the genealogical questions of - When did the person die? What became of the body? Did records survive for this burial or cremation? Ms. Peterson will highlight the surviving death, funeral home and mortuary ledgers and cemetery and removal records - many of which are available for reference in the San Francisco History Center.

While you are visiting the Main Library on Saturday, come up to the San Francisco History Center to see 19th century Odd Fellows’ Cemetery Tombstones. These Odd Fellows’ Cemetery tombstone fragments had been unearthed in San Francisco backyards. The Odd Fellows’ Cemetery was dedicated in 1865. In 1933, the bodies were removed to the Greenlawn Cemetery in Colma. Most of the stonework was used to construct the seawall at Aquatic Park, although some odds and ends were left behind.
September – November 2009
San Francisco Main Library – San Francisco History Center
100 Larkin St., 6th Floor