I've heard a couple of different explanations, one that the pictures were taken because someone wasn't there and they wanted to send the picture to them, and another because they just didn't have any pictures of that person, so they did it at death. I have to say when I saw the picture of my great uncle as a kid, I thought how gross and I really couldn't look at it, but now as an adult, I see the value in it. We don't have that many pictures of family from the early 1900 s, so even one taken at death gives a little more insight to a family that I never knew. I'm not sure how many of you looked at the sites that I sent, but there is one picture of a young woman whose mother couldn't bear to part with her, the picture was taken 9 days after death, she was posed sitting in a chair. That is what amazes me, the lengths that people went to, to have these pictures taken. Rene' -------Original Message------- From: Patty Gaddis Date: 1/20/2007 10:36:19 PM To: Rene'; nydelawa@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [NYDELAWA] photos of the dead There is supposedly a family photo somewhere of my grandmother's sister in the casket. Supposedly she died in childbirth and the photo is of her and the baby. No one seems to know what happened to it any more. This was taken in 1939 in Springfield, IL. We always thought it was taken because my grandmother, living in California, couldn't attend the funeral. Patty