Funeral Home Records

I cannot find in the book how to cite Funeral Home Records that are actual photocopies of the original record held by the Funeral Home and not transcriptions.  Assistance appreciated.  Thank you.

Submitted byEEon Fri, 01/22/2016 - 13:46

kbainsworth, what kind of "funeral home record" do you have, exactly, and how did it come into your possession?

MANY years ago when we had to write letters and visit places for info, I sent out many letters to funeral homes requesting copies of their records for a variety of my ancestors.  In some cases the funeral home staff transcribed the info [found that in the book], however, in many cases, the staff actually photocopied their records [no transcription] and mailed me the photocopy   In most cases these copies consisted of several pages with a huge assortment of information:

vital statistics:  included many times address, place of death, birth place and date, parents names, occupation, employer, ss #, surviving spouse, military info, informant info, certificate signed by etc.
Biographical info - this area tells of memberships, religion, etc
Surviving Relatives - ususally lists in detail survivors and their residences
Service details - where funeral was to be held - date and time, clergy, pallbearers, visitation, etc
Final Disposition - if it was to be burial, cremation, etc, name and address of cemetery, information about burial
and then an area for misc.
in some there was also a page showing the expenses of the funeral broken down.
at the funeral home information is always found someplace within the photocopy

It appears in these type of records that the photocopied pages of their records are the pages the director filled in when meeting with the family members but I can't say for sure. 

This would be an copy of the original in its first recorded form.

I have just switched over to using RM7 and am trying to source things "by the book".  I would either like to figure out one of the templates to use in this case or how to make a template as I have many of these photocopies that I will need to cite my source with. 

Thank you for assisting me with this. 

 

Submitted byEEon Fri, 01/22/2016 - 18:14

Kathy, in your situation, EE would use the model at 4.9 (whether your software has replicated this, I cannot say). EE's description of the format is "Funeral Home Records, Personal Examination."  Using this, you would describe each document that you are eyeballing, as best you can from what you have at hand. After you supply the description of the record and its essential elements,, the "repository" would be your own files; but you would want to say that your photocopy was supplied by the ABC funeral home, under a cover letter from XYZ dated Whatever.

 

Submitted byTom Pottengeron Tue, 08/29/2017 - 14:41

This is great news. And once again, let me say "thank you" for this web site.

I use FTM and was able to accomplish this very citation using the template "Artifact (Private Holding)".  It's the best one I could find.

Tom