Ideas for a Funeral Program: Include a Genealogy

Those creating funeral programs tend to be close to the center. They know precisely who will be there to say goodbye. Those on the periphery may be far less informed.

Families, especially large ones, splinter and sprawl as the generations unfold.

I have cousins dotted around the city, in different suburbs and neighborhoods. I have more who have moved away, returning along the miles only for private visits or rites of passage. I know who they are. Our parents know who they are. Our children may never play together. They might not even meet them nor know their names. Their grandchildren haven't a hope of joining up the dots in a genealogy.

The center holds. The circumference becomes increasingly more vague.

Thus it is that I could stare, wide-eyed with goosebumps, at this vision of my Grandad entering a chapel yesterday. I was there to mourn my great-auntie. We had a long, rich history together, quite literally, considering the hours that we spent together compiling our family tree. But her children - now grown and with children of their own - were rarely there during those sessions. Her grandchildren and I never crossed paths.

Therefore I'd never met her grandson, who looked so much like her brother - my Grandad - until the moment we all came together to say goodbye.

A family tree to consult would have helped enormously, as we all attempted to piece our relationships together at the wake.

You don't need to purchase a template to include genealogical information, that would be more than adequate for most funerals.  Just add a page or two to the funeral program, which fills in this information:

Ancestors

• Birth name of the deceased
• Name(s) of their sibling(s)
• Names of their parents
• Names of their grandparents

This would allow all cousins, aunties, uncles, nieces and nephews to pin-point their relationship to the individual being mourned.

Descendents

• Name at death of the deceased (may be the same as birth name, but not if - for example - a woman married and took her husband's surname)
• Name of their spouse(s)
• Name(s) of their child(ren)
• Name(s) of their grandchild(ren)

If there are further generations, then keep going until all of the great or great-great etc. grandchildren are added to the list.  This would allow all children, grandchildren and in-laws to pin-point their relationship to their beloved deceased.

Do you like the family tree above?  It just took me a grand total of ten seconds to create by pressing a button on the Tribal Pages website.

I simply found Albert Thomas Hickman (born 1915) in my family tree, selected 'view', then 'printable charts', and chose from the array of charts on offer.

I went for four generations, which is way too much for a funeral. I could just as easily have gone for two, three, five or six. These people are his ancestors. The same page allows the descendents to be displayed in a similar way throughout various generations. You merely pick the one that best suits the individual and covers those guests expected amongst the mourners.

Tribal Pages is a free site. You don't have to trace back hundreds of generations to use it. Merely open an account and add in those names required for your funeral program genealogy sheet.

We've already covered how a simple family tree in a funeral program might help bring relative strangers together at a wake. It also provides them each with a gift, on behalf of the individual whom everyone is mourning.

It could be their last act of uniting their family against the vigor of time.

Genealogy is interesting. It tells people where they came from and how deeply their roots are buried. Funeral programs aren't cast away in the wake. They're carried home in pockets, bags or clutched in people's hands. Then usually stored in some drawer and largely forgotten.

Unless it includes information to be referred to time and time again.

This isn't merely the family history of the person who died. For those relatives leaving for home, it's their family tree too. Each time they take the chart out to consult on their own behalf, they will be remembering again the lost relative for whom this funeral program was created.

Long after attending mourners have passed on themselves, that program may survive to be passed onto generations who never knew your loved one lost. But they'll remember them too now. They'll know all about them. They'll see their photograph and other information right there in the same program.

It's one way to ensure that their memory goes on and on.