The Burial Record Is Often Kept in One Place.
Keep a Second Copy Somewhere Else

What this covers, and what it does not

Everyday Backups backs up files on Windows computers, plus phones and tablets: the register spreadsheet, plot map files, scanned ledgers, photos, board documents and accounting files that a cemetery keeps. It is not cemetery management or mapping software, and this page makes no claim to integrate with any of it. This page also gives no cemetery law, deed, lot-sale, trust-fund, perpetual-care, burial-permit, state-registration, tax or privacy advice, no advice about any recordkeeping or retention obligation, and no legal or regulatory advice of any kind. For those questions, talk to your attorney, your accountant or the appropriate state office. What follows is about one practical thing: the files your cemetery already has, and how to keep a recoverable copy of them somewhere other than where the originals sit.

Why cemetery records are uniquely fragile

Most records can be rebuilt from somewhere else. A burial record often cannot. The register may be the one place that says who is buried in a given plot, and which plots are still open.

The Oregon Commission on Historic Cemeteries, in its guidance on protecting cemetery records, makes a point that rings true far beyond Oregon. It is not unusual for a cemetery organization to have only one repository for its records. Records have been lost to fire, to water damage, or simply by being handed to one person and never seen again. Those records may be the only information about the people buried there. Its recommendation is plain: copy the records, and keep the copy in a separate location known to more than one person.

That is the whole idea of this page. We do not speak for the commission, and we are only passing along a simple piece of guidance that fits every small cemetery we can think of. When the one PC will not start, or the one ledger is gone, the answer to "who is buried here" and "which plots are still open" can go with it. Rebuilding from obituaries, headstones and family memory is slow, and it is never quite complete.

Where the records actually live

Before you copy anything, find out where the records are. In a small cemetery they are rarely in one tidy place, and some of the places are not obvious.

• The one Windows PC at the church office or city hall, where the register spreadsheet or the cemetery software is kept
• The volunteer's or sexton's own home laptop or desktop, where a working copy was started years ago and never moved
• USB drives and external drives in a desk drawer, a church safe or on a key ring, which people sometimes treat as a backup
• The paper ledgers and handwritten burial books in a cabinet, a vault or a back room
• Plot and section maps, whether drawn on paper, scanned, or saved as map files
• Email, where a family inquiry, a monument order or a note from the previous clerk may be the only copy of something
• Phones and tablets that hold photos of headstones, sections and work done on the grounds
• Anything kept in a vendor's online system, which lives on their servers rather than on your PC

Write the list down, and note who has the key to each place. It becomes your backup scope, and it is also the list the next volunteer will be glad to find.

The record set a cemetery is carrying

The record set below is what many boards want to be able to put a hand on, for a question from a family, a genealogist, a monument dealer, an auditor or the next clerk. We give no advice on any of it. These are simply the kinds of files that tend to exist.

• The interment register. Burial records with names, dates and plot locations, in a spreadsheet or in your cemetery software.
• Plot and section maps. Drawn maps, scanned maps and map files. Your plot map is often the hardest thing to recreate.
• Lot sales, lot deeds and owner records. Kept as documents. We give no advice on them.
• Perpetual care accounts and trust paperwork. Kept as documents. We give no trust-fund or perpetual-care advice.
• Scanned ledgers and photos. Scans of old handwritten burial books, and photos of headstones and sections.
• Monument and setting orders. Foundation work orders and vendor correspondence. For monument dealers, also design proofs, inscription proofs and customer orders.
• Genealogy and family inquiries. The questions that came in and the replies that were sent.
• Board documents. Minutes, bylaws, and mowing and maintenance contracts, as the documents the board keeps.
• Accounting files. QuickBooks company files, and donation or endowment records, as documents.
• Cemetery software exports. Exports and reports from your cemetery software or your mapping program, saved as files.

Two of these deserve extra care: the interment register and the plot map. They are the hardest to rebuild, and they are what everyone else asks for first.

Scan the paper first, then back up the scans

Old ledgers are fragile in their own way. Paper fades, pages loosen, and a book that has sat in a damp room for decades does not get better. Scanning is a sensible first step.

Take your time and scan the pages in order, name the files so a stranger could follow them, and keep the paper. Photograph the sections and headstones if that is part of the record. Then do the step people skip. Scanning is not a backup by itself. A scan is a file, and a file on one PC is a single copy. If the scans are only on the same computer as the register, you have moved the one point of failure from the cabinet to the computer.

The scans need a copy too. That means one that runs on its own so it does not depend on someone remembering, goes off-site so a fire or a flood at the church office does not take it along with the originals, is encrypted, and keeps version history so a file damaged or overwritten can be pulled back from an earlier point. That is what Everyday Backups does on Windows computers, and on iPhone, iPad and Android as well.

An external drive on the desk is not the same thing. It sits in the same room as the PC, and it can be lost or damaged along with it. See why an external drive is not a backup for the longer explanation.

A copy in a separate place, known to more than one person

This is the commission's recommendation, put in practical terms. CISA promotes the 3-2-1 rule as a simple standard for small-business backup, and it suits a cemetery very well. For the full rule, see the 3-2-1 backup rule.

Automatic, off-site, encrypted and versioned are the four words to look for. Then add a fifth, which is the commission's own: known to more than one person. A backup only one volunteer knows about is a smaller version of the same problem.

When the volunteer or sexton changes

Cemetery records so often fail at the handoff. The person who kept everything for years steps back, moves, or passes on, and the next person inherits a cabinet and a computer with no map to either.

• Keep the copy on an account that the organization controls, such as the cemetery association, the church or the city, and not on one person's personal login.
• Make sure at least two trusted people know the copy exists, where it is, and how to reach it.
• Write down where the files live and what is in each folder, so the next clerk does not need a tour from someone who has retired.
• Walk the new volunteer through a test restore while the old one is still around to answer questions.
• Do not put passwords into a backup. Work out access to the organization's accounts deliberately, with the board.
• Keep email in mind. A mailbox on a personal account can disappear when the person does, so move what you need first.

The records belong to the cemetery's story, not to whoever happened to be keeping them. We make no claim about who legally owns any record. For that question, ask your attorney.

Fire, storm and ransomware at the church office or city hall

The offices where cemetery records are kept are often small, older buildings, and they are not immune to the usual hazards. A storm, a leak, a fire or a stolen laptop can reach the PC and the ledger cabinet in the same event.

That is why the copy has to be somewhere else. A drive in the next room goes with the room. A copy in a separate location does not. Ransomware is a different kind of hazard, and the FTC and CISA both publish guidance for small organizations on it. The common thread in that guidance is a backup copy that the infection cannot reach and that you have actually tested, which is why an offline or off-site, encrypted copy matters.

Small offices are not too small to be targeted. We say that without alarm. A tested copy shortens a bad week. It does not replace your own care or your advisers.

Test a restore

A copy nobody has ever restored from is an assumption. Prove that the copy works while everything is still calm.

Pick a few files that matter: the register, a section map, a folder of scanned ledger pages. Restore them to a different location, open them, and check that they are what you expected and that they are complete. Do it while the original is still in the building, so that if something is missing you can still go back and get it.

CISA and the FTC both stress testing restores as part of a sound backup plan, and Microsoft publishes its own restore documentation for OneDrive, which is worth reading if your office uses it. Restoring is a skill, and it is far easier to learn on a quiet day than after the old PC has failed. See how to test your backup restore for a plain way to do it.

Cemetery software, vendor systems and QuickBooks

Many cemeteries use a cemetery management program or a mapping program, and some use a vendor's online system. Knowing what each one holds, and where, matters.

How this differs from the adjacent pages we publish

Several other pages on this site sit close to this one. It is worth being explicit about the boundary so you land on the right one.

• Not funeral home backup. That page is about the funeral business: arrangements and case files. This page is about the grounds and the permanent burial record, which outlives any one funeral.
• Not church and congregation office backup. That page is about the congregation's office: membership and giving. This page is about the cemetery's register and maps, which a church may also keep.
• Kept at city hall? See city government office backup. For a municipal cemetery, that page covers the wider office, and this one covers the register and maps within it.

If your situation touches more than one, more than one page may apply. The thread running through this one is the permanent record of who is buried where.

How long to keep records, and who owns them

We do not say. Ask your attorney, your accountant or the appropriate state office.

Everyday Backups makes no claim about any recordkeeping or retention obligation, how long any record must be kept, who legally owns the records, or whether any requirement applies to you. A backup helps you hold a copy of your own files. It does not tell you which ones to keep or for how long.

A checklist for a cemetery records keeper

The items below are a starting point, not a complete plan. For a broader review of your current setup, see the small-business backup checklist.

• List every place that holds cemetery records. The office PC, a home laptop, USB and external drives, paper ledgers, maps, email, phones and any vendor system.
• Name the register and the plot map. Confirm they are in the copy, along with lot, owner and care paperwork kept as documents.
• Scan the old ledgers and photograph the sections. Name the files clearly, and keep the paper.
• Back up the scans, not just the register. Scanning is not a backup by itself.
• Include the rest of the record set. Monument and setting orders, family inquiries, board minutes, bylaws, contracts and QuickBooks files.
• Download what lives in vendor systems. Save exports from any online system to a folder that is backed up, and repeat it periodically.
• Make a copy that is automatic, encrypted, off-site and versioned. In a separate place from the originals.
• Put the copy on an account the organization controls. Not on one person's login, and with the location written down.
• Tell at least two trusted people. Make sure more than one person knows where the copy is and how to reach it.
• Test a restore. Restore a few files to a different location and open them. See how to test your backup restore.
• Plan the handoff. When the volunteer or sexton changes, walk the next person through all of the above.

Backup is a recovery tool, and what it does not do

It is worth saying plainly. Backup is a recovery tool, not a security, privacy or compliance control.

Backing up your records protects your ability to get your own files back if a machine fails, is lost, stolen or damaged, or is hit by ransomware. It does not make those files secure, it does not make them private, and it does not make them compliant with any rule. It gives no cemetery law, deed, lot-sale, trust-fund, perpetual-care, burial-permit, state-registration, tax or privacy advice, and no legal or regulatory advice of any kind. It makes no claim about any recordkeeping or retention obligation, and does not say whether any requirement applies to you.

These are the records of the people buried in your care, kept by volunteers for their families. A second copy, in a separate place, known to more than one person, is a modest step. It is also the one the commission recommends.