African American Funeral Program Collection goes online

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Angela Walton-Raji on July 18, 2009 at 7:26am

Hello George,

Thanks for sharing that info on the Funeral Program Collection. I am curious as to how many folks (genealogists) collect funeral programs and obituaries? I have a fairly large one myself. I wonder if there could be a place where we could either scan and store them electronically and/or mail in the programs. Some place where there is a large national Afr. Am. collection would be a great thing. They could be categorized by state, then town, and an alpha index could be created.

I have anywhere from 1000- 1100 in my own collection. I suspect that many others do as well.

-Angela-

Permalink Reply by George Geder on July 18, 2009 at 10:24am

Wow! That's a lot!

Besides those of your family, how do you go about collecting them?
I'm presuming you're talking about the actual programs that are handed out at funerals.

Would there be a concern posting those programs which list the relatives that are still living?
Now, as I think about that, obits published in the newspapers are 'public' documents. So there may not be a privacy issue.

Peace,
"Guided by the Ancestors"

Permalink Reply by Angela Walton-Raji on July 25, 2009 at 9:41pm

Well a good friend of mine (and a genealogy colleague), met two elders in the community and they started sharing their funeral programs with us as we were documenting the history of the community.

One elder in particular, had a really large collection.(She had over 600) Well---most of these people are family members of many of the larger families in the black community. She made copies of each of them and scanned them, and whatever she scanned, she sent a copy also to me. They were then returned to those who shared them with us.

In adddition, I also had my own collection of over 250 personal obits from friends and family, plus I have several years worth of obits from a local black newspaper. I make a point of asking for the opportunitiy to copy them whenever I visit people and make copies usually that and take the owner with me, and return them right away. They are now in over 6 binders, and I still have some not bound.

But the good part is that we have also been putting the data into FTM, entering them as unrelated family groups----but the families are connecting!

Since so many funeral programs include a biography with the names of the parents of the deceased , we have good data.

Permalink Reply by George Geder on July 26, 2009 at 10:53pm

That is amazing!

In effect, you are re-building a community!
I draw inspiration from that.

Peace,
"Guided by the Ancestors"

Permalink Reply by Sonia L. Walker on July 22, 2009 at 7:04pm

Our genealogy group (Buffalo Genealogical Society of the African Diaspora) has a project to collect Funeral Programs. We have had 2 volumes microfilmed by the Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier and are collecting them for the 3rd volume. I think we have about 3000 in the first two. Our criteria has been Buffalonians and the family of BGSAD members. We need to look for a way to get them digitized like this GA-based collection. At the very least, I need to work on getting the index online. The microfilm is available at 3 of our libraries (Central Branch, Merriweather - where we have the African American Resource Room, and at the Monroe Fordham Center of Buffalo State College (where the microfilming took place.) The actual programs are also at the Merriweather. It would be great to have a National Repository. Sonia

Permalink Reply by George Geder on July 26, 2009 at 10:49pm

Meriweather!?! In SC?

I have Ancestors out of there, or who at least have lived there.
BRAYBOYs, CORLEYs, CURRYs, EUBANKSs, HANCOCKs, LENARDs, ect.

Do any of these surnames show up in your index?

Peace,
"Guided by the Ancestors"

Permalink Reply by Sonia L. Walker on July 27, 2009 at 10:17am

Hi George,

Should have been more specific - The library is the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Branch here in Bflo. I will check the index for your surnames.

Permalink Reply by George Geder on July 29, 2009 at 5:44pm

Hi Sonia,

In that case (lol), I have a grand uncle, Frederick Geder, who lived in Buffalo, Erie county, New York. b. 7 February 1880 - d. 1 March 1943.

Any chance for a look-up?

Permalink Reply by Sonia L. Walker on July 31, 2009 at 4:54pm

Hi George,
I know we don't have any obituaries going back to 1943. What else might you be looking for? Let me know, & I can take a look.

Permalink Reply by Doll Hargrove on July 19, 2009 at 3:00pm

Hi George,

I have a collection of obits but not as many as Angela! I've added alot of them at Findagrave.com over the past several years.

Doll

Permalink Reply by George Geder on July 19, 2009 at 3:04pm

Hi Doll!

Glad you're here.
I'm curious, are they family members?
How do you go about collecting them?

Peace,
"Guided by the Ancestors"

Permalink Reply by Angela Walton-Raji on July 25, 2009 at 9:49pm

Hello Doll,

Do you put the biography on Find a Grave? If we have data---we do that, plus we include a photo and the headstone if we have documented the cemetery.

Here are two samples:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Trent&...;

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Triplett&...;

Biographical data we got off of the funeral programs.

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