Archives West Finding Aid

The Seattle Funeral Home Records Collection combines funeral home records from eight separate businesses in the Seattle area; most were maintained through a series of mergers and acquisitions until 1999. These records are usually comprised of data sheets or cards describing arrangements for funerals, cremations, or both - including detailed information about the deceased (name, age, next of kin, cause of death, insurance information, etc.). Data sheets also list the date of the funeral or cremation and details of the memorial service: the coffin, the headstone, the flowers, the music, etc. Finally, these cards often state information about the cost of these services and the arrangements for payment. Other related material is sometimes filed with the data sheets, such as newspaper clippings or typescripts of obituaries. In some of the later records, medical or hospital records related to the client's death are included. The larger series include alphabetical indexes to the data sheets.

Some records are fairly complete for the duration of that funeral home's operation, while others cover only a few years out of a longer span. See scope and content notes at the series level for more specific detail.

These records will be useful for genealogists, historians, and anyone interested in the death arrangements made in the Seattle area over most of the twentieth century.

For general researchers, one of the highlights of the collection is the Home Undertaking uncollectible accounts index. In this group, each index card lists multiple attempts to acquire payment, as well as notes describing the family's (or individual's) financial situation. Many of these cards date from the Great Depression.

There are also many records from the funeral homes active during the 1940s of funerals for WWII soldiers killed in action which may be of historical interest.