The original books have been microfilmed and are housed in the Rapid City Public Library, 610 Quincy Street, Rapid City, SD 57701. The Behrens Mortuary (current address, Box 1055, Rapid City, SD 57709) is still in business, however, it is no longer owned by any of the Behrens family. The mortuary does, however, have the old records and will let you look up information in them, but will not do it for you. They will make duplicate death certificates. The early records contain the most information, such as the name of the person who ordered the burial, the place of death and some times the cause of death. Later records are less complete.

In order to best use space, we have used some abbreviations in this index.

BHN – Black Hill National Cemetery located near Sturgis, SD

MTV – Mountain View Cemetery located in Rapid City, SD

MTC – Mount Calvary Cemetery located in Rapid City, SD

PLN – Pine Lawn Memorial Park located in Rapid City, SD

SB – Still Born C/O – Child of

D/O – Daughter of S/O – Son of

W/O – Wife of DA – Died in Action

The numbers are the numerical listing in the original books. The two early businesses are defined by the letter H, 2H, and 3H preceding the number indicating burials handled by Henry Behrens business and J preceding the number indicating burials handled by J. A. Behrens business. The original books are divided according death dates. Book 1 covers 1874-1906, Book 2 –1907-1920, Book 3 – 1921-1930, Book 4 – 1930-1939, Book 5 – 1940-1949, Book 6 – 1950-1959 and Book 7 – 1960-1971. Knowing which book to look in will help speed up the finding the entry.