At 8:39 3/16/99, der@redrose.net wrote: >Someone has shared with me that undertakers in the 1800s were actually >"furniture salesmen" for lack of a better word or phrase - that they would >have been carpenters or makers of furniture first and then had the >"funeral parlor" in their "store" where they made the casket. ( My husband >is a descendant of the ROHLANDs who had the ROHLAND Funeral Home.) Can >someone verify or discount this story? > Oh, most definitely! Being a mortician was not such a great occupation - but someone had to do it. I guess it just went one of the local cabinetmakers, since he would be making the caskets. Until perhaps the past 50 years funerals were mostly done from the homes so there was no need for a special place at the mortician's to view bodies. Often you will find the funeral director listed next to a furniture store and is under the same name. Not every furnituremaker was necessarily a mortician, though. Sorry, can't help wioth your other question. -Linnea