Last week, I received an interesting email from Mary Ellen. Her enthusiasm was apparent. She had stumbled across a couple of funeral cards from the early 20th century from the collection of Mark and Beth Waller that had been placed online. Much to her delight, the funeral cards images, she had discovered were those of her great great-grandparents. That discovery sparked a new interest in trying to locate the Wallers and other funeral card collectors that may have additional familial cards.
Her question posed to me, one that I have also pondered, "Is there some sort of Funeral-Memorial Card Collector's club?" Since, I am a novice — my response to her was rather lame. My experience, thus far, has been to purchase funeral cards through Ebay. Many of the sellers are antique dealers. The anonymity of Ebay buyer of cards makes for a difficult trail to follow. Currently, I am unaware of an official association of card collectors.
If you, as a reader to this post, are a funeral card collector with an interest to collaborate with the genealogy driven, please let me know. Most often, genealogists are pleased with a quality image of a funeral card of their family member. Plus, collectors, you are holding a document that is precious to a family historian. It would be great to learn of a clearinghouse where collectors and genealogists could converge.
Oh, by the way, if you know Mark and Beth Waller — tell them Mary Ellen is hoping to make contact with them.
