Patsy Z. Johnson African American Funeral Program Collection Soon Will Be Digitized at EBPL Genealogy and Special Collections

Last month Johnson was reading a news article about the preservation of African American funeral programs in the Louisiana Florida Parishes. According to the article, Dr. Antoinette Harrell, a genealogist and local historian formed   a partnership   with Richardson Funeral Home, Inc. Amite, to preserved the the historical records. 

Last year Dr. Harrell  and Richardson Funeral Home, Inc. Amite,  established a collection at the Center for Louisiana Southeast Studies Department in Hammond, Louisiana.

Johnson contacted Harrell to talk with her about her collection. Harrell invited Johnson to her home office to look at the collection and to advise Johnson what to do to preserve the collection. After hearing what Harrell had to say, Johnson was committed to preserving tis collection for future generations in her family and family historian, genealogist and researchers.  

Funeral programs serve as a memorial for the dearly departed. In the programs, information about the deceased can be found. Such as their date of birth and the death date, the names of their parents and siblings, children, and other family members. If a woman was married, there is a strong possibility that you will find her maiden name in the program, Genealogist and historian find treasures in these programs and they value such documents.

Following the completion of Dr. Harrell's database for the Patsy Zander Johnson funeral program collection,  she confirmed that it contains one hundred and sixty programs.  Harrell's database comprised of the following: surname, given name, year of birth, date of birth, place of burial and location of burial.   

A number of the programs are from the funerals of the deceased who resided in St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington Louisiana Florida Parishes. A few of the programs were from Tylertown, Progress, and Osyks, Mississippi. Some of Tyltertown, Mississippi is a part of this collection.  The collection consist of a large number of Brumfield's and Briggs families. 

Dr. Harrell the curators for Richardson Funeral Home, Inc. Amite Funeral Programs, is promoting community awareness of the importance of preserving these rich historical collections.  Among the noted burial grounds are: Union Chapel AME Church Cemetery, Kentwood, Louisiana.  Mt. Olive Baptist Church Cemetery, Mt. Hermon, Louisiana,  Shady Grove Cemetery, Progress, Mississippi,  Crystal Springs Cemetery, Rocky Hill, Tylertown, Mississippi, Butler AME Cemetery, Amite, Louisiana,  Big Zion Cemetery,  Roseland, Louisiana, and Rocky Hill Cemetery in St. Helena Parish. 

The collection has been organized and compiled and is ready to be submitted to the East Baton Rouge Public Library Genealogy and Special Collections for digitization. All funeral programs are accessible to the public on the EBPL  Genealogy and Special Collections website. 

Links

The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies

http://www.southeastern.edu/acad_research/programs/csls/historical_collections/archival_collections/r_s/richardson_funeral_home/index.html

East Baton Rouge Public Library

https://ebrpl.libguides.com/c.php?g=44597&p=284123