The Cost of Dying in 1919: Funeral Home Records

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.