Find Small Funeral Home Obituaries and Verify the Right Record
If you are searching for Small Funeral Home obituaries, the most relevant official match is commonly E. Alvin Small Funeral Homes, which serves Colonial Heights, Petersburg, and surrounding communities in Virginia. The funeral home publishes current obituary notices online and provides details such as the person’s name, date of death, hometown, family information, visitation, funeral or memorial service, and other arrangements when the family has chosen to publish them.
Because several funeral businesses in the United States use “Small,” “Small’s,” or “McMillan-Small” in their names, first confirm the city and state before relying on an obituary result. This guide focuses on E. Alvin Small Funeral Homes in Virginia and also shows what to do when an obituary is older, missing, difficult to locate, or does not include burial information.
Recent E. Alvin Small Funeral Home Obituaries
The official funeral home website maintains a continuously updated obituary section. Recent notices visible during the latest review included the names below. Obituary listings change as new notices are published, so use the official obituary page for the newest information.
Name |
Date shown |
Location shown |
|---|---|---|
Phyllis G. Ackerman |
October 13, 2026 |
Colonial Heights |
Sandra Patricia Browder |
October 13, 2026 |
North Dinwiddie, Virginia |
Ida Lee “Pat” Senter |
October 11, 2026 |
Chester |
Frances Davis Garrett |
October 11, 2026 |
Colonial Heights, Virginia |
Joyce Marie Wilkerson |
October 10, 2026 |
Colonial Heights |
Cheryl Ann Auten |
October 8, 2026 |
Colonial Heights |
Rickey Allen Bowen |
October 8, 2026 |
Colonial Heights |
Charles “Chuck” John Koutnik |
October 7, 2026 |
Colonial Heights |
Evelyn Jean Benefield Street |
October 7, 2026 |
Chesterfield |
Hildegard Schwalm |
October 2, 2026 |
Petersburg, Virginia |
How to Search Small Funeral Home Obituaries
Start with the person’s full name
Write down the first name, middle name or initial, surname, maiden name if applicable, and any nickname. If you only know part of the name, begin with the surname because obituary pages often list a formal legal name even when family members used a nickname.
Add one location clue
Use Colonial Heights, Petersburg, Chesterfield, Prince George, Dinwiddie, Hopewell, or another nearby Virginia locality if you know it. A location clue helps separate E. Alvin Small Funeral Homes from similarly named funeral providers in Alabama, Ohio, South Carolina, and other states.
Search the official obituary archive
Open the official obituary listing. Use the site’s obituary search field when available. Try the surname alone first, then the full name.
Open the individual obituary
Check the death date, age, residence, relatives, service information, and any cemetery or interment details. Compare those details with what you already know about the person.
Verify service information before traveling
Service times can change. If you plan to attend a visitation, funeral, memorial, or graveside service, use the official obituary as the final source and contact the funeral home if anything is unclear.
E. Alvin Small Funeral Home Locations
The funeral home operates two Virginia locations. Both are associated with the same funeral-home organization and use the same main telephone number listed on the official site.
E. Alvin Small founded the funeral home in 1952 in Colonial Heights. The organization later expanded with its South Crater Road location. The official history also notes that the funeral home operates its own crematory.
What Information Can You Find in an Obituary?
A funeral-home obituary is often more useful than a simple death notice because it may combine family, service, and life-history information in one place. The exact details depend on what the family chooses to publish.
Detail |
How it helps |
|---|---|
Full name and nickname |
Helps match the correct person and identify alternate names. |
Birth and death dates |
Useful for genealogy, grave searches, and death-record verification. |
Residence or hometown |
Helps distinguish people with the same name. |
Parents and spouse |
Useful for building or confirming family relationships. |
Children, siblings, grandchildren |
May lead to additional family records and cemetery clues. |
Visitation or funeral details |
Provides date, time, and place when publicly listed. |
Cemetery or interment details |
Can provide the first direct clue to the burial location. |
Church, military, employer, or organization |
Creates additional research paths when a grave or older record is difficult to find. |
How to Find an Older Small Funeral Home Obituary
If the obituary does not appear near the top of the current list, that does not mean the funeral home has no record. Recent notices naturally appear first, while older notices may be several pages back or require a name search.
Use this order
- Search the exact surname on the official obituary page.
- Try the full legal name.
- Search a maiden name or previous married name.
- Try common nickname variations.
- Look through older obituary pages if the death date is approximate.
- Search the person’s spouse, parent, child, or sibling when the name itself does not produce a result.
- Contact the funeral home if you have a strong reason to believe it handled the arrangements.
What If the Obituary Does Not Name the Cemetery?
Some obituaries provide full burial details, while others mention only the funeral or memorial service. When the cemetery is missing, use the obituary as a starting point rather than assuming there was no burial.
Practical burial-search workflow
- Save the person’s full name, age, death date, residence, spouse, and closest relatives from the obituary.
- Check whether the obituary mentions a church, graveside service, military service, or specific community.
- Ask the funeral home whether burial or cremation disposition information can be shared.
- If you know the likely cemetery, contact its office and ask for section, lot, plot, row, grave number, or interment date.
- If the deceased was a veteran, check an official veteran burial locator where appropriate.
- Use the death certificate as another verification route when legally available to you.
For a broader grave-research workflow, the Find a Graves research hub explains how to combine obituary clues with cemetery offices, death records, veteran sources, archives, map clues, and family information.
Virginia Death Certificates: When You Need More Than an Obituary
A death certificate can help confirm facts that may not appear in an obituary. Virginia’s Office of Vital Records handles death certificates and death verification records.
As of 2026, the Virginia Department of Health lists a $15 fee per certified copy or record search. The state says death, marriage, and divorce records become public information 25 years after the event. For more recent records, access to a full certified copy is generally limited to qualifying immediate family members or other legally eligible requesters.
Micro step-by-step
Open Virginia Vital Records
Use the Virginia Department of Health Office of Vital Records.
Select the death record option
Choose the death certificate or death verification route that fits your need.
Check eligibility before paying
For a recent death certificate, review relationship and identification requirements before submitting the application.
Compare the official record with the obituary
Match the name, death date, death place, family information, and any burial or disposition details available on the record.
For genealogical research, Virginia also notes that older surviving records may be available through the Library of Virginia. This becomes especially useful when researching deaths long before modern online obituary archives existed.
If You Cannot Find the Person, Try These Name Variations
Search problem |
Try instead |
|---|---|
Married woman not found |
Maiden name, married surname, spouse’s surname, first + middle name. |
Nickname used by family |
Search the legal first name and nickname separately. |
Middle name uncertain |
Try first + last name only, then first + middle initial + last. |
Spelling uncertain |
Try phonetic spellings and one-letter variations. |
Death year uncertain |
Search nearby years rather than one exact date. |
No result for deceased |
Search spouse, child, parent, or sibling; another obituary may mention the person. |
When Should You Contact E. Alvin Small Funeral Homes?
Contacting the funeral home is most useful after you have already searched the obituary archive and gathered basic identifying details.
Have these details ready:
- Full legal name and possible nickname
- Approximate death date or year
- Age or birth year if known
- Last known residence
- Spouse, parent, or close relative
- Whether you believe the Colonial Heights or Crater Road location handled arrangements
- What you specifically need: obituary, service date, funeral-home confirmation, or burial clue
Email listed by the funeral home: funeraldirector@ealvinsmall.com
Website: ealvinsmall.com
Ask a narrow question rather than requesting a full genealogy search. For example: “I am trying to confirm whether your funeral home handled arrangements for [full name], who died around [date/year] in [location]. Is there an obituary or service record available?”
Small Funeral Home Obituaries FAQs
1. Where can I find current Small Funeral Home obituaries?
For E. Alvin Small Funeral Homes in Virginia, use the official obituary page at ealvinsmall.com/obituaries. It is the most direct source for current notices and service details published by the funeral home.
2. Is Small Funeral Home the same as E. Alvin Small Funeral Homes?
People often shorten the name in searches. The Virginia funeral home is officially known as E. Alvin Small Funeral Homes. Always confirm the city and state because other funeral businesses also use “Small” or “Small’s” in their names.
3. Where is E. Alvin Small Funeral Home located?
It has locations at 2033 Boulevard in Colonial Heights, Virginia, and 3935 South Crater Road in Petersburg, Virginia.
4. How do I find an older obituary?
Search the official archive using the surname, full name, maiden name, nickname, and approximate death year. If that does not work, check older pages and contact the funeral home with the person’s identifying details.
5. Why is a Small Funeral Home obituary not showing in Google?
The notice may be new, old, unindexed, published under a different name, or not published online. Search the funeral home’s own obituary archive directly instead of relying only on a web search engine.
6. Do funeral-home obituaries always show the cemetery?
No. Some notices include the cemetery or graveside service, while others list only funeral or memorial information. When the cemetery is missing, ask the funeral home or verify through cemetery and death-record sources.
7. Can I get a Virginia death certificate if I find the obituary?
Finding an obituary does not automatically make you eligible for a full certified death certificate. Virginia applies relationship, identification, and other eligibility requirements to recent records.
8. How much does a Virginia death certificate cost?
The Virginia Department of Health lists a $15 fee per certified copy or search as of 2026. Check the official VDH page before ordering because fees and procedures can change.
9. What should I do if two people have the same name?
Compare age, death date, spouse, parents, children, residence, service location, and cemetery information. Do not rely on the name alone.
10. What is the best way to verify a burial after finding an obituary?
Use the obituary to identify the likely cemetery, then confirm the burial with the cemetery office, funeral home, death record, veteran burial locator, or another primary record when available.
Final Takeaway
For most people searching Small Funeral Home obituaries in the Colonial Heights and Petersburg area, the fastest route is to start with the official E. Alvin Small Funeral Homes obituary archive, verify the person’s name and location, and then open the individual notice for family and service information.
If the notice is older or does not identify a cemetery, do not stop at the obituary page. Use relatives, location clues, Virginia death records, the funeral home, and the cemetery office to confirm the correct person and burial. That approach is especially important when researching genealogy or people with common names.