My dad's little sister died from a burst brain tumor 2 months before I was born. She was born in 1934 and died age 8 the day before her birthday in August 1942. Dad took her photo in her coffin on her 8th birthday. I never knew her, but she was always remembered and talked about at our house. There are very few pictures of her and I treasure every one, even her day after death photo, my sweet little Aunt Marbra Myers that I've always wished could have lived so I could have palled around with her. Annette Campbell

It was a very common practice "back in the day" as my nieces and nephews say ... to take photographs of the dead ... sometimes that was the only photograph ever taken of the person ... especially children ... there was one for sale on eBay just last week ... I have seen many photographs of the dead ... some in their caskets ... some laid out on a bed ... some with family gathered around them ... before photography they even had paintings done of the dead ... again especially childen ... the New England Historical Society had an issue of their monthly magazine dedicated to this practice about a year ago ... I'll see if I can find the issue ... I have one (not very clear) of my great-great-uncle Elbert W Barton with his second wife Cora Smith ... she is laid out on the bed like she is sleeping and he is sitting in a chair beside her holding her hand ... they lived in Windsor, Broome Co, NY just west of the Delaware County Line ... John A Aiello Los Angeles, CA -----Original Message----- From: anncamp@linkny.com To: nydelawa@rootsweb.com Sent: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 4:23 PM Subject: [NYDELAWA] Death photos My dad's little sister died from a burst brain tumor 2 months before I was born. She was born in 1934 and died age 8 the day before her birthday in August 1942. Dad took her photo in her coffin on her 8th birthday. I never knew her, but she was always remembered and talked about at our house. There are very few pictures of her and I treasure every one, even her day after death photo, my sweet little Aunt Marbra Myers that I've always wished could have lived so I could have palled around with her. Annette Campbell To contact list administrator send email to nydelawa-admin@rootsweb.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYDELAWA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.