Priceless Family History in Kentucky Funeral
Invitations
By Jean M. Hoffman, CGSM
For some families no early Kentucky death records exist in
the usual sources of probate, family Bibles, church records, and cemetery
inscriptions. A quite different source was a surprise. My Eckles family is well
represented in a book I found of transcribed funeral invitations. Some of the
information is present nowhere else. Family members also appear in three other
published collections of funeral invitations primarily from Lexington and
Georgetown in north central Kentucky.
Funeral invitations, some quite elaborate, were in use by
the 17th-century in England, some reportedly collected by Samuel Pepys.
Kentucky invitations began with simple designs, the earliest in the collections
from 1802.[1]
They informed friends and neighbors of a death and served as invitations to the
funerals. Often held a day after death, funerals could not be announced in the
newspapers, as many were weeklies. Modern death notices and funeral cards are
widely saved and so were the funeral invitations. Some can be seen as ephemera
in online sales, at Pinterest, and in manuscript archives.[2]
Example: Funeral invitation, Broadsides and Ephemera Collection, Duke University Libraries Digital Collections |
Huckster Cyrus Parker Jones collected funeral notices in
Lexington for many years. He bequeathed them to James M. Duff, a library
trustee who presented the collection to the Lexington Public Library in 1900.[7]
Among these funeral invitations is one from 1829 for Eleanora, a daughter of
Susan (Eckles) Coffman, though only the father, Philip, was named.[8]
One for a Mrs. Jane Huston in 1818 might be for the Jane Eckles who married
James Huston in 1807 but that awaits further research. Susan and Jane are
sisters of Charles Eckles.
An important find was an index entry for an Alexander Eckles
in Kentucky Ancestors.[9]
His 15 December1823 funeral was held at the home of his mother.[10]
The city is not mentioned but many invitations in this indexed collection are
from Georgetown. Tax records help confirm this as the Alexander Eckles of
Georgetown. He paid Scott County tax from 1816 through 1823; the 1824 books are
missing; and in 1825 Nancy Eckles, his mother, began to pay tax on town lots.[11]
Alexander is a brother of Charles Eckles.
John M’Calla kept a scrapbook of Lexington funeral
invitations until he moved away. Some duplicate the other Lexington collection
but many are for additional people. Alexander Adams is one of the new names
with an invitation to his 1805 funeral in Lexington.[12]
The father of Nancy (Adams) Eckles, he also had a death notice in the Kentucky
Gazette.[13]
The information from these slips of paper helped reassemble
the Eckles family of Fayette County and Georgetown. Their few probate records
are sketchy, a cemetery not located, no family Bible found, and their
Georgetown Presbyterian Church was not formed until 1828.[14]
I’m even told the first record book of the church is missing.[15]
The funeral invitations in these four Kentucky collections have proven
extremely valuable in family research.
Note:
the images are taken from larger sheets. Reproduction of images from the
library website are not allowed.
CG is a Service Mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists. used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluations by the Board.
1.
James D. Birchfield, editor, A
Collection of Lexington, Kentucky, Funeral Invitations (1802-1846);
collected by John Moore M’Calla (Lexington, Ky.: Special Collections &
Archives, University of Kentucky Libraries, 1999). [Includes transcriptions, in
chronological order, of 430 funeral invitation cards and facsimiles of 24.]
2.
For a sale see: 1898 Port Providence
Pennsylvania Funeral Invitation, David w Fronefield; eBay
(http://www.ebay.com/itm/1898-Port-Providence-Pennsylvania-Funeral-Invitation-David-W-Fronefield-/271294859642
: accessed 30 July 2014). For Pinterest see: Vintage Funerals; Pinterest
(http://www.pinterest.com/lamcraft/vintage-funerals/ : accessed 30 July
2014). For achives see: funeral invitation, Mrs. Ann E. Robinson, 1837, ID
bdsv023193; Broadsides and Ephemera Collection, Duke University Libraries
Digital Collections
(http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/broadsides_bdsva023193/ : accessed
30 July 2014).
3.
Marie Dickoré, compiler, Copies of
Names on Invitations to Funerals and Burials In Scott County and Fayette
County, Kentucky, 1821 - 1898: Including Names of Deceased, Family Connections,
Ministers, Church, Cemetery, Pallbearers, as They Occur on the “Invitations”
(Cincinnati, Ohio: Marie Dickoré, 1942).
4.
Guardian report from Charles Eckles in
Will Book, E, part 2: 161 (this volume contains records reentered after the
1837 courthouse fire, done as best as they could be), Scott County Clerk,
Georgetown, KY. Distribution of John Boyd estate to his granddaughters when his
will named his then-unmarried daughter indicates the daughter is deceased.
5.
DIED (Mrs. Nancy Eccles), The
Protestant and Herald, Kentucky, 22 February 1844; TheOldenTimes.com
- Historic Newspapers Online, digital images
(http://theoldentimes.com/nancyeccles44ky.html : accessed 28 March 2011.)
7.
Linda Ramsey Ashley and Elizabeth Tapp
Wills, Funeral Notices: Lexington,
Ky., 1806-1887 (Rochester, Mich.: L.
Ashley, 1982). Digitized and available online through the Lexington Public Library
, Funeral Notices Collection: http://www.lexpublib.org/funeral-notices-collection.
8.
James M. Duff, compiler, Duffs
Funeral Notices Scrap Book, 1806-1887 (Lexington, KY: Lexington Public
Library, 2002), Eleanora, daughter of Philip Coffman card; digital images Kentuckiana Digital Library
(http://name.kdl.kyvl.org/929-3 : accessed 27 March 2011).
11.
Scott County, Kentucky; Manuscript Tax
Lists, Kentucky State Historical Society, Frankfort; FHL microfilm 8,221;
Alexander Eckles entries: 1816 Tax List, p. 20; 1817, p.11, Capt. Tilford; no
1818 Tax List; FHL microfilm 8,222; Alexander Eckles entries: 1819, p. 22;
1820; 1821, p. 24; 1822; 1823; no 1824 Tax List; Nancy Eckles entry, 1825.
13.
Died (Alexander Adams), Kentucky Gazette and General Advertiser,
Lexington, Ky., 15 January 1805, p. 3, col. 1; Kentuckiana Digital Library,
digital images (http://athena.uky.edu/newspapers.html: accessed 2 September
2011).
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