When I attended a family funeral yesterday both Mr GeniAus and I took a funeral booklet/order of service.
I have been sorting out my huge "to be sorted" pile of ephemera this week and I came across several duplicate funeral books for family members. I really only need one of each for my files. I then remembered the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet where I have a collection of funeral books for unrelated people. I have saved all of the funeral books for services I have attended over the years plus I have been given some by people who are aware of my hoardng and genealogy obsessions. I realised that these private publications can be a goldmine of genealogical information and wondered if I should I should share them with the geneacommunity. Some of the earliest booklets I have are quite simple while some of the newer ones are quite sophisticated publications but they all contain genealogical data. One would hope that the people compiling these publications provide accurate information.
The latest addition to my collection gives birth and death dates for the deceased, the name of the celebrant and the names of those taking part in the service. It is highly likely that some of these people are family members. The booklet also has two pages of photographs of the deceased covering his life span. Some of these booklets give other information like the date and time of the service and details of the burial or cremation.
I am going to gather up my collection of duplicate family booklets and those for unrelated persons and offer them to a genealogy society or library that I hope will index them. I may even offer to index them if the repository provides me with guidelines.
What do you do with the funeral booklets you collect? Please don't toss them - send them to me and I'll add them to my collection.
I have been sorting out my huge "to be sorted" pile of ephemera this week and I came across several duplicate funeral books for family members. I really only need one of each for my files. I then remembered the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet where I have a collection of funeral books for unrelated people. I have saved all of the funeral books for services I have attended over the years plus I have been given some by people who are aware of my hoardng and genealogy obsessions. I realised that these private publications can be a goldmine of genealogical information and wondered if I should I should share them with the geneacommunity. Some of the earliest booklets I have are quite simple while some of the newer ones are quite sophisticated publications but they all contain genealogical data. One would hope that the people compiling these publications provide accurate information.
The latest addition to my collection gives birth and death dates for the deceased, the name of the celebrant and the names of those taking part in the service. It is highly likely that some of these people are family members. The booklet also has two pages of photographs of the deceased covering his life span. Some of these booklets give other information like the date and time of the service and details of the burial or cremation.
I am going to gather up my collection of duplicate family booklets and those for unrelated persons and offer them to a genealogy society or library that I hope will index them. I may even offer to index them if the repository provides me with guidelines.
What do you do with the funeral booklets you collect? Please don't toss them - send them to me and I'll add them to my collection.
