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.

Geo W Abbott 1860~1879 Found in U.S.A.
Henry M Adams 1838~1900 Found in U.S.A.
Sarah A Adams 1824~1877 Found in U.S.A.
Sophia Jane Aitcheson 1862~1904 Wellington County Ontario.
Samual Adam 1799~1874
Lucy Andrews 1790~1869
Robert Andrews 1786~1870
Lauuelina Jane Armand 1841~1866 Massachusetts.
Mary M Atherton Found in New England
Wilbert 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.

Coffin Plate of Patrick Dalton died 1879

Olive Tree Genealogy is sharing this coffin plate with permission of my Facebook friend Dan Lynch:

Hoping to return a found family treasure to the right descendants. 

Silver cross engraved Patrick Dalton, Died Aug 4. 1879, Aged 67 Yrs 5 Mos (Estimated birth March 1812). 

Measures approx 8x6 inches.

Dan has given me permission to add this to the collection of coffin plates on AncestorsAtRest.com

 

 

 

Featured Genealogy Resource: Coffin Plates (a Death Record)

Today's featured set of little-known Genealogy resources is Coffin Plates. Yes - coffin plates, also known as Casket plates, coffin plaques and casket plaques.

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

Sometimes the coffin plate was attached to the coffin and removed before burial, then given to the family to take home as a remembrance token. Other times the coffin plate was placed on top of the coffin in a stand, then given to the loved ones after the funeral.

Brian Massey of AncestorsAtRest.com has a very large collection of coffin plates online. There are over 500 individual coffin plates on Brian's website and they are all free for visitors to look for a Coffin Plate of an ancestor.