BURIAL

 

MEMORY TABLE FOR DEPARTED LOVED ONES

From the Library of Congress, this Memory Table lithograph was designed 

by A. M. Bleichrode, circal 1974 in New York.

IF YOU or AN ANCESTOR WERE MEMBERS OF LATTER DAY SAINTS THERE IS A 1960 CHURCH CENSUS as well as 1914, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935, 1940, 1950, 1955

This is a census of the members...

FAMILYSEARCH CHURCH CENSUS  This is an information page and will bring up some data but you'll have to go into your FamilySearch account to go further.

Excerpt: Church census records include censuses for the years 1914, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935, 1940, 1950, 1955, and 1960. Included with the 1914-1935 census are some delayed birth certificates which originated in the Church Historian's Office and a few Salt Lake Granite Stake genealogical survey cards. The records are arranged alphabetically by the head of the household. Microfilm of original records in the LDS Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church records are kept by many denominations. For instance for Roman Catholics the records are usually in the Diocese archives. And church records are usually of baptisms, marriages, and deaths, while sometimes there are also records of Confession, Communion, and Confirmation, as well as Converts

C 2024 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved

MEMORIAL DAY

We Americans have this day off in order to remember our veterans, 

but there are so many "wars" our ancestors fought on the home front, and personally.  

Let's remember them all.

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE LECTURE by JOHN MARTIN FISCHER UC RIVERSIDE DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES!  Fascinating always, here is an expert lecturing and discussing what is mental, what is cultural or religious, and the proof that consciousness is not necessarily tied into the physical brain.

Presented by John Martin Fischer, UC Riverside

Professor and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy.

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE : INTERVIEWS WITH DYING PEOPLE

I'm hooked on TED Talks....

PRAGMATIC MARRIAGE and DEATH

Pragmatic marriage - matchmaking or introductions - and no contraception.  Children dead from diseases now conquered through vaccinations and antibiotics - Fragile beings.  Or because their mother was malnourished during her pregnancy.  Or had too many children close together to actually recover between births.  Or they wore born without a father to support the family. Or their mother had no milk.

Today we talk Grieving.  We say it takes time to heal.  We have psychotherapy.  Then?

They had religion -informed world views. Children born as replacements (but not reincarnated) for previously born children who died. It seems to me that our ancestors had a whole lot to grieve as intimate family members, wives and husbands, parents, siblings, as well as friends and people they surrounded themselves died.  Reminding them that they too would and that life had many risks.

They often remarried - pragmatically  and quickly- as they might have the first time around in youth - and there were blended families due to death rather than divorce (which we think is another form of death.)  A woman without a husband needed another one quickly.

Were they so different than us?  Did they always have to carry on and get to it?

Villagers in Europe were often quite genetically related.  

Children on farms worked young.

Girls were left uneducated more than boys.  Even well-to-do families thought education - reading and writing - though educating a girl was handicapping her, making her a less desirable and dependent wife.

This was socially acceptable.

I think of the brides of pre-contraception and modern medicine days as especially brave.  They all knew that pregnancy and childbirth could kill them. 

As I try to understand my ancestors, I'm glad for the choices that modern medicine has given us.

And that be it them or me, life is short.

C 2022 Ancestry Worship Genealogy

COLLECTING THE FINAL WORDS THAT DYING PEOPLE SAY...

FINAL WORDS PROJECT  Lisa Smartt and Dr. Raymond Moody...

You can share...

DEATH PROCESS and SPIRIT : WHAT CAN BE SEEN IMMEDIATELY BEFORE AND AFTER A PERSON DIES

LIFE TO AFTERLIFE : MOM CAN YOU HEAR ME HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG ; ANCESTRY WORSHIP FILM REVIEW

LIFE TO AFTERLIFE : MOM CAN YOU HEAR ME   

HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG ; ANCESTRY WORSHIP FILM REVIEW

Craig is the interviewer, a good and patient listener who talks with 17 parents who have lost their children. These parents come from a variety of religious and spiritual points of view and their children died in a variety of ways and ages, from a horrific car accident that was a parent's fault to an addict's heroin overdose. Perhaps the most profound loss a loving parent can have, it's natural and part of the process of acceptance to want to communicate with the child who has left the body and life on earth. 

A few known psychic mediums make appearances giving their notions of the spirit world. Book authors make appearances too. It's the testimonials of the parents that is most important.

Perhaps these children knew or their parents knew they wouldn't be long on this earth. The young ones may have been enlightened beings. Some were kid peacekeepers, the type who stood protectively against bullies. They were Old Souls. Sensitive. Empathic. 

Some of the reported communication includes parents seeing balls of light, ghosts, having dream visitations, or feeling a hug from far away.

Despite most of these parents having anger over the loss of a child, according to James Van Praagh, one of the most known mediums today, in the spirit world they know what's going to happen and when and absolutely every one of us, upon death, is met by someone to help with our transition.

I know some people are afraid of mystical things and may be of different religious beliefs. However, this film is one of several to consider by Inspirter Films. I realize some of them will seem "way out" to some people while being of possible comfort to others.

C 2021 - 2025 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved

HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG

LIFE AFTER LIFE - DEATH AND BACK : FILM REVIEW

This film, which contains four testimonials by individuals who had near death experiences,

was possibly the most tremendous film on the subject that I've ever seen. It has beautiful images but the sincerity and the details of the experiences as spoken impressed me most of all. One person was an atheist. Another person was agnostic and telling her story to an atheist doctor ended up with her being put into a psych ward and doped up. What a shame! (Are most doctors atheist?) Fortunately, she got her life back and came away with new beliefs. These people had transformative experiences. 

I put the word Jesus in my tags. The film's not preachy. These are English speaking Westerners who live in a culture informed by Christianity.

I hope the film- maker, Craig McMahon, makes more film on the subject.

Every day people are born and people die. The sickness and death of the Covid Pandemic has effected our consciousness. Maybe we shouldn't be so afraid. Have an open mind and watch this one!

C 2021

THE LIGHT BEYOND - RAYMOND MOODY on NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES and SHARED DEATH EXPERIENCES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

THE LIGHT BEYOND - RAYMOND MOODY on NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES and SHARED DEATH EXPERIENCES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

At this time of year, the fall, we traditionally have festivals, rituals, religious events, and private prayers for the dead. So many people wish they had just a little more time with someone who was dying, so they could communicate more.  The work of Raymond Moody, a psychiatrist, on death and dying made him famous beginning back in the 1970's and opened the investigation.  From THE LIGHT BEYOND, we learn NOT TO BE AFRAID OF DEATH.

I think it's human nature to be afraid but Moody says even his own two failed suicide attempts became blessings in his life. And no, he did not make these attempts as a scientific experiment.

Whatever the culture or religious tradition, a person who almost died, or who was declared dead but revived, reports the same things of NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE.

1) Looking down from above at one's own physical body and understanding by hearing the doctor or nurse say that they have died.

2) Experiencing a tunnel or passageway and coming into a warm and loving light. To feel almost absorbed in peace and love and being welcomed by those who have previously died.

3) An increase in light.  Then, being surrounded by what could best be described by a holographic or 3D experience of every action they have done in your life.  The person feels the experience that they gave others.  The happiness or the pain.

4) What happens next I'll call "the reason for returning to earthly life."

There are four possible experiences reported.

You find yourself instantly back in your body. OR

Someone in that place tells you that you have to go back.  It is not your time. There is more for you to do. OR

You are given a choice. Some people say they did not want to come back but they knew they had to, for the sake of raising their children or some other important task.  OR

You beg and plead to come back.  Moody says this is rare.  They told God they had to come back.

Therefore, I would say that we do have Free Will or Choice, most of the time.

When people come back, they often change their values.  They know they must learn to love. They report no longer fearing death.  They say it's just another state of reality. 

But perhaps what is most exceptionally interesting is that there are people who were there at the death bed who are not ill, not dying, but report A SHARED DEATH EXPERIENCE.  People report experiences such as seeing the room filled with light.  They see apparitions of death relatives - perhaps the welcome committee. Some people say that the room itself seemed to change as if they were instead in some sort of altered or different geometry.  Some of those who are there at the death bed report co-living the life review experience.  Now, this is important, they may experience these things even if they don't personally know the dying person.  Some doctors and nurses report having such an experience!

You have to see this video to see the image of a ball of light that appeared and was photographed when a person died.

You'll want to watch this DVD at this time when death is so much on our minds.

C 2020-2025 Ancestry Worship -Genealogy

PROCESSING GRIEF?

PRACTICE LOVE!

You loved someone - maybe for years -
You know how to love -
Use that love now to love a pet - foster or adopt -
Love the planet - ecology -
Contact people in your extended family who you didn't have enough time for earlier in your life -

HONOR YOUR LOVED ONES
Write down a favorite family stories
or Create a Scrapbook -
Continuing their special project or work (their garden, their charity.)

IT'S OK to FORGET YOURSELF and your GRIEF and
have a good day, laugh, notice how beautiful it is outside.

DAY OF THE DEAD

Coming up November 1 and 2, celebrated in Mexico as a day in which families visit and picnic on graves, in the Catholic Church this is the time of year for praying for the souls of the departed.  Enjoy coloring or otherwise using these images for personal use and non profit blogs and such from Dover Publications.  Sign up with Dover for more information.

MORE DEATHS AROUND ME - COUNTY DEATH RECORDS - SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH RECORDS

Since my recent post about my senior citizen friend who had a well lived 90 plus years on this earth, word has reached me that a friend from the 1990's died a few months ago, though very little is being said as for the details, she left a son and husband.  A neighbor I posted about last year in my story about senior citizens, girlfriends, and good neighbors, has also died.


Walking the dog the other day, my senior citizen neighbor who had been in a nursing home recuperating when her roommate had a bad motorcycle accident and went into a coma last year, came over to me to tell me he had died.  She was rattled and I was shocked.  This man had really pushed himself to get well enough to go back to work and keep his job after being a coma for a month, and so swollen with edema that the physical therapy had to wait.  The macho type who liked to ride that motorcycle on the freeway between the cars, it had been difficult for him to accept taking a Paratransit van back and forth for a few months.
His motorcycle remained in front of the drive and a biker friend of his would come over on the weekends to help him get back on it.  His coworkers had donated their vacation time to him so that he could remain out of the office for a longer time than usually allowed, and over time, slowly, he had overcome much.  He had been through a lot of medical procedures and tests and was well enough to relax by going camping.  Now he had been found dead while out camping.  Likely his heart gave out, but since he was not at home or in the hospital, there will be the usual scientific probing called an autopsy.


DEATH RECORDS are public records.  Public does not mean that the details of a persons death are as easy to access as what used to be called a "police blotter," and is the report of crime and arrests in an area.  However, anyone can send away for a death record, usually to the county in which the person died and for a small fee.  Some states have you state or prove you are a close relation such as a child, sibling, parent, or spouse.  Some don't.  In some cases the death record a person can get only states that in fact the person has died, and that person would be named and a birth date and death date, no details.  In others you get a copy of the paperwork filed, usually with a doctor's signature, stating the cause of death.


For those of you who want to collect the DEATH RECORDS of your relatives not only because of genealogy interest, but for medical history, perhaps inclinations towards genetic issues in the family that DNA testing may or may not prove, here are some considerations.


1) Doctors are not and never were all equal, and the further you go back, the more likely it is that the doctor did not know what is known today by medical science.  Prior to X-rays and the sophisticated tests possible today, doctors did their best, but the full sum of their knowledge and education may have been lacking.  In other words, the diagnosis might be speculative.  (Remember that barbers - hair cutters - used to be surgeons - and that included pulling teeth!)


2) Poor people often did not call doctors, or called them only in emergencies.  This lead to more speculative diagnosis as well.  So consider the diagnosis.  For instance, if the record mentions broken bones or a pregnancy related death, it's probably correct.  However, cancer was not well understood, and might be called "tumor" or "long illness."  "Long illness could also be TB, or many other diseases.)


3) Currently, if you are a close family member and your loved one is being autopsied, before you give permission, be sure to state that you want a copy of the report.


4) FUNERAL HOME records and CEMETERY RECORDS tend to repeat the information on the DEATH RECORD.  You never know, however, when more details might be given.


5) Consider doing  some research about the state of the art in medicine, treatment of the disease at the time, and so on, in order to put the report into a historical perspective.


For instance, death by TB was considered so frightening that some health departments in the United States issued booklets to the citizens, advising them not only to cover their nose and mouth and wash their hands, but stated that the children on a mother with TB could not be raised by her.  (Many children were born with TB because their mothers were infected.)


DEATH and DEATH RECORDS always remind me of an old Italian proverb that goes like this, "After death, the King and the Pawn go back into the same box."

BEN FRANKLIN'S BONES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

BEN FRANKLIN's BONES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

 

The Benjamin Franklin connection is exploited for the title of this PBS video that is part of the Secrets of the Dead series. His 18th century residence in London, which was the home of a family at 36 Craven Street was also the home of Dr. Huston, a doctor who was probably more or totally responsible for the burial of human bones in the basement. Though Ben Franklin's experimental and scientific nature is well known, there is no way to prove he ever had anything to do with them. 

This film is about the state of the art of medical science in that era. It is about the "body snatchers," people who would sell dead bodies to doctors (science) so that autopsies and dissections could be performed. Check your gag reflexes because this is a time honored practice to learn about the human body and expected in medical schools. The "body snatchers" were not always the most moral and ethical people, however, and so by modern day standards they may be thought of as criminals.

But what else did those who wanted to understand and some day cure diseases that killed people like typhus and cholera have to work with if not the bodies of the dead?  Methods then were primitive compared to now, as were the tools to saw a skull in half.  In this society there was no concept of virus or germs and people were dying of kidney stones and gall stones, which we well understand today, as well as broken bones.  Today many people donate part or all of their bodies for organ transplants and skin grafts and there is huge debate over the ownership of sperm and eggs that are frozen for later use once the people who donated them don't want to or can't pay for them to be kept.

In the 18th century, men who were sentenced to death wrote begging letters to their families to claim their bodies before they were sold or given away, fearing the desecration even though they'd be dead.

So though Benjamin Franklin is one of my favorite most fascinating historical personages, perhaps what was more interesting was that when he returned to America, this "Second Family" he had lived with in London was brought here to live and their family tree is full of doctors, including a woman who will show you some of the family documents that link Ben Franklin and their family.

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HOW THEY CROAKED - THE AWEFUL ENDS OF THE AWFULLY FAMOUS by GEORGIA BRAGG is GROSS! (BUT INTERESTING)

How They Croaked The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous By Georgia Bragg and Illustrated by Kevin O' Malley C 2011 Walker and Company - New York Reading about George Washington (his bad teeth finally killed him) or Marie Antoinette (she apologized for accidentally stepping on the foot of her executioner before he beheaded her), was odd fun, though mostly I thought this book was gross. But I have to share with you a list on page 73 that made me realize how TRULY IMPORTANT IT IS TO NOT THROW THINGS YOU MAY NEED SOMEDAY OUT!

"OUT WITH THE GARBAGE"

* Mozart's widow, Constanze, threw away many of Mozart's unfinished musical compositions.

* Beethoven's secretary threw out 260 of the 400 conversation books Beethoven wrote in to communicate with people.

* George and Martha Washington threw away all their love letters to each other.

* Christopher Columbus's family sold off all his maps and charts.

THE DEAT BEAT by MARILYN JOHNSON - THE WORLD OF OBITUARY WRITERS EXPOSED! BOOK EXCERPTS

THE DEAT BEAT by Marilyn Johnson
Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries

You're going to love this one because it is sad, funny, and true.
Marilyn Johnson explores the world of Obituary Writers, and here is an excerpt from page 117.

"What does it take to be a good obituary writer? Reporting skills, life experience, and something I can't quite pin down - an ability to weigh someone's life and accomplishments historically, in the context of the times. A good obit writer has to communicate the significance of a person, a place, an era. Sense of humor? It's a good survival skill, and it adds a lot to the pleasure we take in some writers' work, but I don't think it's essential. Neither is empathy. As for "style," that's also optional. What it takes to be a good obituary writer is an ability to write well, to capture a person with economy and grace, and work in the hurricane of emotion that swirls around the newly dead."

Examples of great obits that capture the imagination of the reader and bring the recently deceased to life one more time abound in this book. Examples come from Great Britain and the United States. More you get to meet some of the best obit writers - journalists dedicated to the research - interviewing - as well as turn of phrase. Jim Nicholson, who did plenty of newspaper work as an investigative reporter before he started writing obits says, "There aren't any boring people; there are just boring questions." He was once a broken-down journalist who learned how to get his scoops by scoping out the beat - mortuaries - neighbors.

Here's a funny one for you from page 49

"Selma Koch, a Manhattan store owner who earned a national reputation by helping women find the right bra size, mostly through a discerning glance and never with a tape measure, died Thursday at Mount Sinai Medical Center. She was 95 and a 34B."

And from page 159 from a writer named McKie, who ran an obit prematurely....

"I apologize unreservedly to our readers for having mislead them. More importantly, I apologize to Mrs. Ritter. I am genuinely delighted she is still with us - I came to like her a lot while preparing her obituary for the page.

She may even have the good luck to follow Cockie Hoogterp, whose premature obituary The Daily Telegraph published in 1938. After 50 years, during which she sent back all her bills with the word "Deceased" scrawled across them, it was referred to again in the newspaper. She then wrote in to say, "Mrs. Hoogsterp wishes it to be known that she has not yet been screwed into her coffin."

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