2024 Cemetery Indexing Project

• Websites used for the indexing project
  • Find A Grave
  • Billion Graves
  • FamilySearch – Log in with a free account. The FamilySearch Wiki recommends using the following collections to search for Texas death records. Use the link on the “Edit Records Screen” first. If you do not find an entry, try one of these collections.
    • Texas Deaths,  1890-1976
    • Texas Death Index, 1903-2000
    • Texas Deaths, 1977-1986
    • Texas Death Index, 1964-1998
• What cemetery should I Index?
  • The DGS Cemetery Database contains selected cemetery records. It does not include burials for all Dallas County Cemeteries. DGS volunteers continue efforts to add more county cemeteries to the database.
  • At the “Edit Records Screen”, you can let the program choose the cemetery or you can claim records from the list of unindexed cemeteries on the dropdown list “Claimed Uncompleted Records.”
  • As volunteers index all the records for a cemetery, that cemetery will drop off the list shown in the “Claimed Uncompleted Records” list.
• I claimed a record showing on the “Edit Cemetery Record Screen.” Why does the name, birth date, or death date not match exactly to entries in Find A Grave, Billion Graves, or the death certificate?
  • Indexers face the same issues most genealogists have with names and dates.
  • The information in each of the external databases we are indexing may come from multiple sources and not match exactly.
  • The source may mistakenly use a burial date for a death date.
  • Names may use initials, nicknames, middle names only, and various spellings. Use wildcard searches in place of vowels.
  • Use your best judgement and the combination of names and dates to index records with slight differences.
• Why can’t I find a Texas death certificate?
  • Texas state registration began in 1908. Some counties began registration as early as 1903.
  • Compliance was not consistent.
  • The deceased may have died in another state or country and the family sent the body to Dallas for burial.
  • The spelling of the name may vary with cemetery records, especially with earlier records. Try various combinations of first and middle names and initials. Try searching for the last name only with a date range of the death.
  • The FamilySearch collection may not contain a copy of an existing death record. Try the indexes if you cannot find a copy of the death certificates. The FamilySearch Wiki for Texas death records recommends a search in the Ancestry.com records if you do not find an entry in the FamilySearch collections. Texas,U.S., Death Certificates, 1903-1982 or Texas, U.S., Death Index, 1903-2000
  • If you don not have an Ancestry.com account, do not search that website.
  • If you locate a Find A Grave or Billion Grave entry, look to see if that record lists a death place other than Texas. If you want, search FamilySearch for death records in that location and if you find a record, use that URL for the “Death Certificate URL.”
• I found an entry for the same person in the DGS database and in Find-A-Grave or Billion Graves, but the cemetery is different.
  • Older, smaller cemeteries may have two or even three names in use at different times. DGS publishes information about Dallas County cemeteries, including different names used for that cemetery.
  • We recommend you read the brief article about the cemetery you are indexing. DGS publishes these articles on the DGS website under Collections> Local Records> Burial & Cemetery Information> Details About Cemeteries in our Database. The cemeteries are listed in alphabetical order.
• I found information about a burial that conflicts with the information in the DGS database. Do I need to report this to someone?
  • Mistakes happen and DGS welcomes comments about such conflicts. A volunteer will do additional research and make a correction if needed.
  • Report conflicts and/or additional information to DGS by clicking on the “Contact Administrator” at the bottom of the “Edit Cemetery Records Screen.” A DGS volunteer will follow-up on your message.
  • See Figure 1 and Figure 2 (below)
• When you have completed editing a record it is helpful to close any open Find a Grave, Billion Graves and Family Search tabs before beginning to edit the next record.
• The program will time out eventually if you are in it long enough. If this happens just log back in again.
• If your PC has two monitors, open the program on one and move the search screens on the other one so you can refer back to the information the program retrieves from our Cemetery database.

Figure 1: Contact Administrator feedback Button

Figure 2: Contact Administrator window