Two of Knoxville's earliest funeral homes were Hall & Donahue and Carl Roberts'. Sadly, the first records for those businesses were lost. Robert McGinnis has been attempting to recreate the lists of deceased individuals handled by Hall & Donahue and Roberts' through a review of death certificates. This database contains an index to the records he has transcribed thus far. As time permits, more entries will be added, with the goal of having every burial by those two funeral homes included in this database. Database currently contains 3,006 records. Period of Hall & Donahue records in the database: 1914-1919. Period of Roberts' records in the database: 1914-1919.
Click here to view a receipt from a Hall & Donahue burial in 1919.
You will have to use your browser's back feature to return here.Hall & Donahue History: Established by Herbert W. Hall and John Donahue in 1894, the Hall & Donahue Funeral Home remained in business until 1936. During many of those business years, there was also a casket manufacturing company as well. The records of the two businesses have since been lost. There may have been other burials held by the Funeral Home during these years, but these recreated records are the only available resource at this time.
Carl Roberts' History: The Carl R. Roberts Undertaking Company was founded at 512 Union Avenue on November 28, 1913. Carl R. Roberts was a funeral director in the Knoxville area and held positions at other local funeral homes before establishing his own business. Carl Roberts' business soon became one of the leading firms in Knoxville, with a large and loyal following. Although Roberts' Funeral Home operated until the 1990's, the records for the years 1913-1943 have been misplaced and are not available at this time.
Search this database for your surname and/or given name (or combination) of interest. You should search on every potential spelling, since spelling variations are not cross-referenced.
| Enter search
text and choose a field (or "all fields") to search: |
If you want to obtain dates and other details that might have been included (maiden names, parents' names, place of death, cause of death, cemetery, etc.), you will need to order a copy of the death certificate from the TN State Library and Archives ($7.00 per certificate). Visit their informational Webpage.
Books containing all transcribed data for each funeral home are also available:
| Hall-Donahue Funeral Home Records 1914-1919 | Carl Roberts Funeral Home Records 1914-1919 |
E-mail Mr. McGinnis for ordering information.
[ Return to Knox County TNGenWeb Records Page ]
[ Return to Knox County TNGenWeb Main Page ]
All HTML code and graphics (except as noted) on this page were created by and copyrighted ©2000-2005 to Billie R. McNamara. All rights reserved. Please direct all questions and comments to Ms. McNamara. All funeral home transcription data for Hall & Donahue and Roberts Funeral Homes in the URL path [http://www.knoxcotn.org/records/] is copyright ©2000-2004 to Robert McGinnis and used here with his express permission. All international rights are reserved by him.