This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/zQB.2ACE/1803.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1.1 Message Board Post: Joann, If they did not mention the cost of a search you certainly should. I located 3 relatives in St. Peter's Cemetery in New Brunswick but luckily had access to records that included birth/death dates, address, date of interment, etc. If you don't have as much information, perhaps it is worth it. <I DID FIND A SITE ON THE COMPUTER LAST NIGHT. IT MAY COME TO SOME HELP TO YOU. YOU CAN FIND SOCIAL NUMBERS OF YOUR DECEASED.> If the deceased has died before 1980, I think, you will get the month of death, and year. This can help if it is all you have to go on. <AS FAR AS ALPINE GOES...YOU HAVE TO SUPPLY THEM WITH THE DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH AND THE NAME OF THE PERSON WHOM YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. > This is practical and realistic. The folks at the cemetery do not have a crystal ball to use to zero in on the family member out of the THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS interred there. Of course you know, record keeping in the days of yesterday were haphazard. I asked my great Aunt why her father had no headstone? She replied, " We just didn't know any better." They would have been shocked senseless that almost 100 years later people would be combing the graveyard looking for their final resting place. <WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY THEY ARE GETTING FOR THE PERPETUAL CARE OF THE PLACE???? > Well, in NJ, a cemetery association that accepts current burials, MUST have endowment care fund(Perpetual is a long time....) The monies deposited in the fund are added to the principal, the earnings (interest accumulated on the principal) are used for maintaining and beautifying the grounds. The Principal can NEVER be touched, period. The costs, like every vestige of living in NJ, soar higher every year, it seems. The cost of landscaping a yard, times however many hundreds of acres at this cemetery, plus employees, snow removal, etc, equal a LOT of money. I can understand how many smaller cemeteries revert to the State as Custodians. If the index card or other record of the individual exists, I would think the time required to access a lot number is well worth it, if you don't have the information. At least it's not the DMV (Motor Vehicle Commision) ;-) Kind regards, Christopher