They may have been destroyed over time or as governments, morticians and cemeteries ran out of space. Often they were considered as temporary documents to facilitate the movement of a corpse through the transport and burial process. If the records exist, they are most often found in the cemeteries' or morticians' files. In other cemeteries, city cemetery sextons or church cemetery administrators may have well-organized files that may contain these types of documents. Old city directories and governmental agencies' license records can provide information about mortuaries and cemeteries in use at the time your ancestor may have died.
Old newspapers can also provide leads, especially among obituaries and death notices.
Burial and transit permits may provide the only death information available for some of your ancestors, especially in the period before death certificates were required in some areas. They may also expand knowledge you already have previously uncovered. In any event, they are another possible record type often unknown and overlooked by researchers. Now you know about them and where you might look. Copyright 1999 George G. Morgan.