Cemeteries may be either nonprofit or for profit, or they may be run by a public entity (though I am unaware of any of the latter in the U.S. other than Veterans' cemeteries). Most cemeteries that are operated by religious organizations are either separately incorporated nonprofit corporations or are run under the nonprofit organization that organizes the church. However, the fact that a cemetery has a religious affiliation does not mean that it is nonprofit. Many Jewish cemeteries are not the instrument of a particular congregation. Instead, they are either profit-making or nonprofit corporations who sell a certain number of lots to different congregations which they can re-sell to their members as a fund-raising (as well as a service providing) operation. In pre-World War II days when these organizations were more in fashion, burial societies would also buy a group of lots in a cemetery for their members. No organization (including a cemetery) is obligated to provide its information without charge. Most cemeteries do so as a matter of public relations, but one will find that cooperation likely to disappear if you arrive with 100 names to check. The question is whether a charge is reasonable. $20 a search sounds like quite a lot if the cemetery has a computerized database of burials, and all they are telling you is the section, row and grave number, and they are sending you that by e-mail. On the other hand, people often want to know everything on the cemetery's record about this decedent, including the name of the person who paid for the grave, and the cemetery's records may not be computerized and may involve substantial searching through less-than-ideal indices, as well as time after something is found to photocopy and mail the copy, in which case $20 seems much more reasonable. Can the charge be avoided? I have never had the experience of going to a cemetery and having the office refuse to look up the location of a grave. (In some communities, I have gone to a cemetery only to discover that there is no on-site office, but never in Philadelphia.) So if the person is not in Philadelphia, perhaps he can find someone who lives there to make the trip for him and photograph the stone while he is there. Bert Herbert Lazerow U. of San Diego Law School, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego CA 92110-2492 lazer@sandiego.edu, fax 619-260-2230, phone (619)260-4597