Recently Ancestry.com put up a new set of records called “Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records.” The collection contains a wide variety of miscellaneous records from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I actually found a few items of interest in the collection. One subset of records comes from the Wackerman Funeral Home, a funeral home which still exists today but is no longer in its former location. In these records, I found information on the funeral arrangements for my great-grandmother, Marie Bergmeister, who died in 1919 at the age of 43. Marie (or more usually, Maria) left behind a husband, Joseph, and five children – including my grandmother Margaret, the youngest, who was not quite six years old.
The funeral home record for the costs of Marie Bergmeister's funeral, 1919.
I knew that my grandmother’s family was poor, but it was interesting to compare the bill for my great-grandmother’s burial to some of the others who died at the same time.
Casket
- $55 – Gray crape
- $65 – Chesnut
- $90 – Square chesnut with ext handles
- $125 – Solid maple
- $200 – Solid mahoghany
Case
- $14 – Pine
- $35 – Chesnut
Hearse
- $10.50 to $13.00
Service
- $5 – Low Mass
- $25 – Solemn Requiem
A more costly funeral found in the same records.
