Arizona County Church and Cemetery Records
See Also Research In State Church & Cemetery Records - Church records rank among the most promising of genealogical records available. Indeed, for periods before the advent of civil registration of vital statistics (a very late development in many American states) , church records rank as the best available sources for information on specific vital events: birth, marriage, and death. They are also among the most under-used major records in American genealogy. Part of the reason lies in the number of denominations-there are hundreds of them. Identifying and locating the records of these various churches makes even professional genealogists hesitate......
Spanish efforts to plant missions in Pimeria Alta (Arizona) were abortive well into the 1800s. The Jesuits fell out of favor and were followed by the Franciscans, who fared no better. In 1833 the missions yielded to the Mexican Act of Secularization and succumbed to decay. Only a tiny fraction of vital and historical records are extant. Numerous suggestions for research during the Spanish and Mexican periods are given by Henry Putney Beers in Spanish and Mexican Records of the American Southwest, in chapter 34. For records of modern times, consult either the churches in question or the public library in the location where ancestors were residing. The Arizona Historical Society has a cross-filed catalog on church records in their card catalog.
Search Arizona Historical Records - Databases include Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Voter Lists & Census Records; Immigration & Emigration Records; Obituary Records; Military Records; Family Tree Records; Pictures; Stories, Memories & Histories; Directories & Member Lists and much more....
Cemeteries - Three volumes of books published by the Arizona Genealogical Society on cemeteries in the state are located at the Arizona State Archives. The archives also holds more than three hundred sheets of microfiche alphabetically listing people who lived in the state thirty years or more prior to their death. It is derived from an index to obituaries recorded mainly in Phoenix newspapers, but covering deaths from all over the state from 1865–1986.
There is also an organized group of individuals who are actively preserving some of Phoenix's old cemeteries and making accurate records for posterity. They may be reached at the following address: Pioneers' Cemetery Association, Inc., P.O. Box 63342, Phoenix, Arizona 85082-3342.
Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:
| FOR DEFINITIONS OF ALL CEMETERY TERMS SEE THE GENEALOGY ENCYCLOPEDIA | |
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