On a death certificate, the place of disposition is the name of the cemetery, crematory, mausoleum, or other facility that received the remains for their final handling. It appears as item 19 on the U.S. Standard Certificate of Death, and it sits next to two related fields: item 18 for the method of disposition, and item 20 for the city, town, and state where that facility is located.1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Standard Certificate of Death
Place of Disposition Is Not the Same as Method of Disposition
These two fields are easy to mix up. The method of disposition records how the remains were handled, with checkboxes for burial, cremation, donation, entombment, removal from state, and an open-ended “other.”1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Standard Certificate of Death The place of disposition records where that handling happened. So if you see “Riverside Memorial Cemetery” or “Pacific Crematory” written in field 19, that is simply the facility that received the body.
Field 20 then pins that facility to a geographic location by listing its city or town and state.
What Name Appears for Each Method
The name written in the place-of-disposition field depends on which method the family chose.
- Burial. The cemetery’s name appears. In some rural areas where a family buries remains on private land, the property or family cemetery name may be used instead.
- Cremation. The crematory’s name appears. What happens to the ashes afterward — kept in an urn, scattered, or buried — is a separate matter and may or may not be reflected on the certificate, depending on state practice.
- Entombment. The mausoleum’s name appears, because the body is placed in a crypt rather than buried underground.
- Donation. The medical school or research institution that received the body is named. Remains are typically cremated and returned to the family after study.
- Removal from state. When remains are transported out of state for final disposition, the certificate may show “removal from state” as the method, with the destination recorded in the place and location fields.
Newer Methods That May Appear Under “Other”
The “other” checkbox on the standard certificate exists partly because additional methods have gained legal recognition in recent years.
Alkaline hydrolysis, sometimes called water cremation, uses heated water and a chemical solution to break down the body. Roughly 29 states now permit it. Natural organic reduction, commonly known as human composting, converts the body into soil through a controlled decomposition process; around a dozen states have legalized it since Washington became the first in 2019. When either method is used, the name of the licensed facility performing the process goes in field 19, the same way a cemetery or crematory would.
Some families whose home state hasn’t legalized one of these options arrange transportation to a licensed facility in another state. In that case, the certificate would likely show “removal from state” as the method.
Who Fills In the Field, and How to Fix an Error
The funeral director handling the arrangements is responsible for completing the disposition section, including the facility name and its location. The information is usually entered into the state’s electronic death registration system after disposition has occurred or been arranged. A physician or medical examiner completes the cause-of-death section separately, so two different professionals sign off on different parts of the same document.
If the place of disposition on a certificate you’ve received is wrong, the funeral director named on the certificate is generally the person who can start a correction. The amendment process varies by state, but it typically begins with contacting that funeral director, who then submits a correction request to the state vital records office. Some states charge a small fee for processing amendments.
What the Field Does Not Tell You
A couple of things people expect to find here aren’t actually on the federal form.
There is no date-of-disposition field on the U.S. Standard Certificate of Death.1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Standard Certificate of Death Some states have added one to their own versions of the certificate, but you can’t assume the date a body was buried or cremated will appear just because you’re looking at the disposition section.
The field also doesn’t track what happens to cremated remains after the crematory releases them. If ashes were later scattered at sea or interred at a different cemetery, the place-of-disposition field will still name the crematory, not the final resting location.