Beth, Not that I know of. Most of the time, they just do like you said and pass the remains on to the family. Only if it were recorded in a family Bible would the information be written down. I am not sure how long the practice of cremation has been used in TN though. My guess is that it is a relatively new practice. (Within the 1900s.) Teresa Ghee Elliott I'm getting organized this year. Join me in August. For Rutherford County TN Cemeteries www.Rutherfordcemeteries.home-page.org For TMG sentences <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rutherfordcemetery/TMG.html> -----Original Message----- From: Beth Bowling [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 4:52 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [TNRUTHER] Cremations Here's a question that I had never thought of before this spring...is there any registry of cremations? My husband of fifty-six-and-a-half years passed away this May, and in keeping with his wishes and my wishes, he was cremated. I have his ashes and will keep them until the day comes that I am cremated...then the children are to mix them together, and scatter them in a couple of places dear to our hearts. I will have a record of this in my family tree, but in years to come, if someone should be looking, there is no cemetery or such with a record of his death. The death certificate says that he was cremated, but that is all. In the past two years two of my neighbors have had loved ones cremated and in one case, the man wanted his ashes scattered over Lake Texoma (where we live) and we had a nice service on his deck and a plane flew over and scattered his ashes. The other loved the Gulf, so all of his family went down to Padre Island, rented two houses for all the family, then they talked to the Coast Guard and the ferry company, who were so very considerate of them, and they all went out on the ferry, and it stopped and they had a service and then scattered his ashes in the Gulf. Then they had a week together "remembering". Times change...and I just started thinking about how these things are handled. The funeral home just gave me Gene's ashes and they have no idea what was done with them. I have been trying to find Gene's g-g-great grandparents with no luck...his great-great grandfather was Matthew Wilson Bowling...lived in Rutherford County...was born 1818 somewhere in Virginia. If anyone has any connection to a Bowling line in Rutherford County, please let me know. Gene has no living Bowling relatives that we know of...and so I have no one to ask. Happy hunting for those ancestors. Beth B in Texas ==== TNRUTHER Mailing List ==== TSLA has the LaVergne Presbyterian Church Records. Rutherford County, 1887-1972. Roll 415 Microfilm Only Collection. Records of LaVergne Church, beginning with the organization of the church in 1887; minutes of session, 1887-1972; registers of elders, deacons, communicants, baptisms, deaths, and marriages; and financial reports. Contact TSLA for more information.

Any good researcher should be checking both the cemetery and funeral home records within the areas where their people were known to live. The increase in #s of those choosing cremations just makes it that much more important that researchers do remember to check funeral home records. --MarieB At 08:26 AM 9/3/2004, you wrote: >Beth, > Not that I know of. Most of the time, they just do like you said and pass >the remains on to the family. Only if it were recorded in a family Bible >would the information be written down. I am not sure how long the practice >of cremation has been used in TN though. My guess is that it is a >relatively new practice. (Within the 1900s.) > >Teresa Ghee Elliott > > -----Original Message----- >From: Beth Bowling [mailto:[email protected]] >Subject: [TNRUTHER] Cremations > >Here's a question that I had never thought of before this spring...is there >any registry of cremations?