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June 19, 2019

Have You Found an Ancestor's Coffin Plate?

May 15, 1790 Coffin Plate Manufacturer's Ad

The history of Coffin Plates or casket plates is a long but not very well documented one. Coffin plates are decorative adornments attached to the coffin that contain free genealogical information like the name and death date of the deceased.

Coffin Plate Thomas Dalton 1829
Generally made of a soft metal like lead, pewter, silver, brass, copper, zinc or tin. The different metals reflect the different functions of the plates, or the status and wealth of the deceased. For a basic funeral, a simple lead plate would be lettered with the name, date of death and often the age of the departed, and nailed to the lid of a wooden coffin. But high status people could afford a plate of a more expensive metal and elaborate design.

The oldest coffin plates that I have seen date from the 17th century (1600~1699) and were at that time reserved for people of some stature. As time went on more people were able to afford the luxury of a Coffin Plate and with the coming of the industrial revolution the cost of the plates went down so much that by the middle of the 19th century almost every family could afford to have one put on the coffin of their loved one. FN1

Some of Brian L. Massey's private collection of Coffin Plates
These are just the start of the over 150 coffin plates that are online on Ancestors At Rest.

Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestGeo W Abbott 1860~1879 Found in U.S.A.
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestHenry M Adams 1838~1900 Found in U.S.A.
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestSarah A Adams 1824~1877 Found in U.S.A.
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestSophia Jane Aitcheson 1862~1904 Wellington County Ontario.
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestSamual Adam 1799~1874
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestLucy Andrews 1790~1869
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestRobert Andrews 1786~1870
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestLauuelina Jane Armand 1841~1866 Massachusetts.
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestMary M Atherton Found in New England
Find Death Records on Ancestors at RestWilbert Avery 1860~1890 Found in Massachusetts.

Continue searching for your ancestor at Index to Coffin Plates

FN1Important Note: Brian L. Massey wrote this article and more, all of which is published on his AncestorsAtRest.com website. It was taken without permission and posted verbatim on Wikipedia. Trying to get it taken down has been unsuccessful.

1 comment:

Diane Gould Hall said...

I never knew there was such a thing. Thank you for sharing. Sorry that Brian's work was stolen. Wikipedia needs to step up and correct that issue.