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Archiver > HUNGARY > 1998-11 > 0911077877


From: "Aileen" <>
Subject: Re: [HUNGARY-L] Re: mysterious trunk
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 13:11:17 -0800


I have a photo of a deceased ancestor. It is fascinating. I get to see the
clothes she wore, the inside of her home, even the field flowers that were
brought in to decorate the scene. In those days it was rare to take a photo
of anyone, so we have little else remaining of them. But at least we have
this last photo. --Aileen
-----Original Message-----
From: Enike <>
To: <>
Date: Friday, November 13, 1998 9:05 PM
Subject: Re: [HUNGARY-L] Re: mysterious trunk

>I have to tell you that it's still practice in Hungary to take a picture
>of the deceased or the funeral. Mostly it's for those who couldn't be
>there. I was home in '96 and '97 and unfortunately had funerals both
>times and although I felt creepy because I'm quite Americanized now, was
>asked to take pictures for relatives and friends that couldn't be there
>(I'm a photographer). Some also just keep a photo in memory of the
>deceased. The practice isn't limited to Hungary BTW. My father died
>late last year and I'm still getting requests for photos from home but,
>as you can imagine, I wasn't really in the "shutter bug" mood (and we
>don't do that sort of thing here in the states anymore) so I couldn't
>provide any to the family.
>
>Just a bit of trivia for everyone! :-)
>
>Have a great weekend.
>
>Judy wrote:
>>
>> Regarding your photo of the dead guy in a coffin, I have a photo of a
>> dead woman in a coffin with a crowd of people standing around posing for
>> the picture. The coffin is propped up so the deceased is just about
>> upright and the whole group is in the front yard of a house. The ethnic
>> background of this group is Hungarian, of course, with some other
>> Eastern European countries represented. The photo was taken in Lebanon,
>> PA and some of my ancestors were in it. Looked a tad strange to me but,
>> I guess that's the way they did it back then. This was taken probably
>> after WWI.
>> Judy
>

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