In 1882, nearly all persons who died were buried by their families. It would have been unusual that the deceased were not buried within the next day after death. Friends (neighbors) would sit with the body until the services. In Dublin and Stephenville and other communities, there would be persons who acted as undertakers for occasional strangers. The undertaker would usually be a local resident who was generally a farmer and would have likely learned about dealing with the dead from dealing with it during the Civil War. The undertaker might be the Justice of the Peace. Death records were not kept until 1903 in the state of Texas although some cities might have had local ordinances before then. I would think that with Emily Cook Pettiet as buried at Turnbow.....that the only remaining record of any kind whatsoever would be a family Bible record if one only knew where that might be. In 1882 one of the "doctors" there in Erath County was my grandmother whose training and background was from experiences gained during the War in treating the sick and wounded; from dealing with family who had Bright's disease (diabetes); and who had a large physicians handbook that she had obtained during Civil War times. Most of the time, her doctoring was in delivering babies. Nearly all cemeteries in the county were family cemeteries at that time with a few exceptions. Bill McCarty Odessa, Texas http://members.tripod.com/cindyradway/Erath/erath.html http://members.aol.com/texastag/mccarty.html