Pennsylvania Cemeteries and Obituaries
If no
official church or courthouse record can be found, an ancestor's tombstone or
obituary can provide a wealth of information. The tombstone may give
important dates and possibly the names of parents or spouses. Often family
members will be buried near each other or in the same cemetery, thus providing
clues to other branches of a family tree.
Obituaries
can also provide family information as well as details of what profession or
skill the ancestor may have had.
However,
the researcher must keep in mind that family members, stone masons, and
typesetters could have made mistakes in dates and name spellings.
Cemeteries may also have changed names just as churches formed and reformed
under different names.
These
sites may help you find the vital information that does not exist in formal
institutional archives.