You want to find out more about someone. You have gone to the "usual" sources: newspapers, genealogy databases, and public records, but you still feel like you are missing something. Maybe you should look in different places. Great examples of overlooked resources are the records of local businesses and institutions. In this case, I am talking about the records of a local funeral home -- Morris Sons.
William H. Morris (1866 - 1916) and his descendants owned funeral homes in Greene and Montgomery Counties for over 125 years. Their work covered a period that saw the business of death go from simply providing caskets and other items for services conducted in homes or churches to the modern funeral we know today. They began their business in Bellbrook before moving to Osborn. During that same time, they briefly opened an additional funeral home in Xenia in roughly the same location that the Xenia Community Library exists today on E. Market St. When Osborn merged with Fairfield, they moved the building and continued. Later, they had operations in Dayton and Kettering.
The Greene County Room became the recipient of many of the Morris Sons ledgers after they sold the business to Routsong Funeral Home in 2022. These records are a treasure trove of information. Most of the ledgers are registers of individual funerals and give the local historian access to some terrific facts, such a birth date, death date, cause of death, burial place, next of kin, decedent's profession, and more. There is information about the types of services and equipment that they sold, such as caskets, pillows, linens, and even slippers. Did you know that there was a funeral home in New Carlisle operated by the Doom brothers? Yes, that name is real! Morris Sons did business with them many times.
Currently, Greene County Room staff is working to make these records more accessible.
Jennifer Morrow will give a presentation regarding this collection Oct. 20 at 2pm at Xenia Community Library. You can register at https://greenelibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/6a8ee0524995480655ec7bf9
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