I can honestly say that you have to turn over every rock in order to find the information that you seek. You should not be above going to cemeteries, funeral homes, libraries, court house records, marriage, birth, and death certificates just for starters.

Funeral Programs are a great source of information Many of them outline the persons immediate family.  I suggest you use a Family Sheet just so you can make sure that you record the information correctly. Make sure that it matches what you already may have about that person. If not, seek verification from other family members. This is useful when this is all that you have to link you to the person in question. You then need to be able to make all the data you have link back to you so you are sure that you got accurate information.

Burial Sites also house a wealth of data about a person...Provided you can locate it. If you locate the persons marker, look around the immediate area and see if there are others from that family. Many times, families will buy a group of 2 or more plots together so they can go into the afterlife together. I have found this to be true in several research projects that I have worked on. If not, you can always ask the groundskeeper if he/she knows of any others, or if they maintain records of deceased and where they may be buried. Some do, others do not. If its a small town, and the cemetery is located on a church property, then its probable that they don't have records, but you can always search the grounds for specific names. (Take a sling blade, machete, or something to cut down weeds and brush to get to them as they are not always maintained well)

The Library - When you get ready to take that trip to the library, there are some things you need to acquire first that may aid you later in your search.

I recommend locating a map of the areas in question for the time frame in question...If you are trying to find info about Chula, Georgia on a 2002 map, you are going to come up empty since it does not exist any longer. Why? Because over time property lines, county lines, town markers, etc have changed which can affect the location of records that you are looking for. 

The best example of this is while searching for my grandmothers home town,  she told me that she was born in Chula, Georgia. I could not find a town in Georgia by the name of Chula. So I went to the library, and asked them to help me locate this town that was in Georgia in the early 1900's that was called Chula...When we found it, it was only a town for 2 years, but it was located in what was also known as Irwin County which later became something else. I then found a map from that time frame that showed me where it was, and when overlaid with a current map, you can see what it is now. Again this is very important when looking for records about these places.

Obituaries are a source of information, however, these are not as easy to come by. this will require a trip to your local library to see if they have archives of past newspapers from the area where the person died or where they were buried. You should search at least 10 days prior to what you know the funeral date to be, not the date of death.

City, State, County Archives hold a wealth of data. Its here that you can find Marriage licenses, Death Certificates, Property Records, Deeds, Wills, and many other types of documentation that will aid  you in your search. It is here that you can also find Census Records. However, keep in mind that the most recent census records available is 1930.

The Federal Archives holds much of the same data as your State Archives, but they also have data from the other states in that region. I am lucky to live in Atlanta where I have my State Archive and Federal Archive near me. (In fact they plan to merge the two sites in the next 2 years or so). For more information on this, check out  NARA Genealogy.