Memorial books, also known as funeral guest registers, generally serve two primary purposes. The first and most obvious purpose is to provide the family of the deceased with a record of those who have attended the service or at minimum, stopped by to pay their respects. The less obvious but sometimes equally important purpose for the memorial book is to provide a means for those that sign the book to express, either by written notations or internally, the fact that the deceased touched and affected their lives in some manner. For both, it is a way to help start the healing process after a loss. The registers are generally presented to the family of the deceased at the conclusion of the service. If you’ve ever attended a funeral or memorial service for someone chances are you’ve signed one of these books.

Memorial books can be as simple as a spiral or comb bound book with blank lines for guests to sign or as complicated as a biographical record of someone’s life as seen through the lens of their family and friends. Regardless, the memorial books often end up in a box in a family members belongings until they are finally thrown away. We here at the Research Center have provided a means to digitize, publicly display and ultimately offer long term storage for memorial books. If you have a memorial book you’d like to donate please contact us through our support ticketing system and we’ll reach out to you right away.

Members of this site have access to the records and the memorial book scans in this collection below.