Headstones can tell all manner of stories (sometimes even offering up recipes!) about the deceased. Cemeteries offer the unique opportunity of providing a person's history while also, more often than not, placing you in close proximity with that person's final resting place.
Cemeteries themselves can also contain monuments to veterans buried in the cemetery which may list all who are buried in the cemetery who served in military conflicts, attaching names to historical
What can you learn from a headstone you may ask? Generally, most headstones will include the basics of a person's name, their birth date and their death date. The following will vary depending upon when the person died, what was viewed as culturally significant, what was allowed by the cemetery that they were buried in, and what was chosen by their surviving kin:
There are several basic pieces of information that are typically included on headstones:
These pieces of information may not be available if the person in question was a stillborn child or an unknown person. After this basic information, you may garner additional information in the form of written information (text) or symbolism (images). There are lists and discussions about symbolism in headstones (for example) which can give you an idea of what to look for, although these will vary across cultures and it is strongly suggested that you consult a variety of sources for your analysis.
It is important to note that rarely does the person who is being described by the headstone choose the decorations for their headstones. In the case of couples, it is the surviving spouse who is tasked with choosing the headstone. The information that you find on these headstones is curated information by those who (hopefully) loved this person and will paint a particular image of this person.
Obituaries can provide a wealth of information about a person's life if the living chose to write about them.
As with headstones, your success in finding information about someone in an obituary depends upon what the living did after someone passed and the circumstances surrounding their passing. For example, if they lived in a large city where obituaries were expensive to print, they may have had a brief one printed. However, if they lived in a smaller town, their family may have had a much longer, more extensive write-up done for their relative. Additionally, if the circumstances of their death were particularly tragic or murky (such as a murder or suicide) the write up may have been brief or clouded in allusions to something else.
Also, like headstones, everything present in an obituary (unless written under unique circumstances) was written by someone other than the deceased so information will be presented through their lens. For example, if they want to present the person's life as particularly upbeat or religious, they will even if the deceased was not. It is important to remember that you are seeing someone's life through other people's eyes and encountering their bias's (even if they are not particularly harmful).