Funeral Costs--17 and 18th centuries

Regular readers of this blog know that I recently completed a three part post on the 200 year plus Havel family management of a farm in Ratiborova Lhota, Bohemia. The information used for this post was primarily from the land registers for that village which was under the Krumlov Domain. Every now and then you pick up some interesting information in the land registers.  A common piece of information was funeral or burial cost. This blog post will be about the funeral costs of some of my ancestors and what I know about Bohemian or Czech death, burial, and funeral customs.

Once a major landholder passed away the burial costs were paid from the value of the estate. After other debts were paid the net value remaining was then equally divided between the heirs. Inheritance practices in the Krumlov Domain were rather complicated, and hence some people you think may be an heir were not an heir. The intent is not to delve into the complexity of the inheritance practices of the domain, but rather to explore funeral customs and costs.

Simon Havel's spouse, Elizabetha death record.
This indicates she is buried at St Jakub's and sacraments
were duly administered

First, death was a common occurrence for our ancestors. Child mortality was high, with deaths in the first few weeks, months and years of birth being rather common due to disease, lack of hygiene and living conditions. It would not be uncommon for an epidemic to break out. Population decline and disruption due to the plague would lead to German colonization of part of Bohemia in the first part of the 17th century. Most of the Germans in southern Bohemia were from Bavaria settling in territories decimated by the plague. Many parts of the Netolice dominion, as an example, were subject to German settlement. In fact, Dolni Chrastany, where Frantisek, my third great grandfather, would move in 1796 is said to be part of the Sudetenland. As we all know, the ethnic German settlements in Bohemia were of dispute between Hitler, the Czechs, and some allied powers prior to the start of WWII. This led to the Munich accords, under which Neville Chamberlain and others, without the involvement of the Czechs, gave Czecheslovakia to Germany. The Havel family farm in Ratiborova Lhota would be on the other side of the Sudentenland border, just barely.

Changes in demographics could occur due to rampant death. Yet, death was most intensely experienced at the family level. As one commentator has stated, our ancestors saw death as it was, the end of life on earth, and the beginning of something new. To believers, that would be heaven (and hopefully not hell). Given a desire to reach heaven the sacrament of penance and extreme unction (now anointing of the sick), were important with the sacraments often noted in the death record and the name of the priest who provided the sacrament(s). 

Simon Havel death record, sacraments and name of priest

After death, or assumed death, the body was prepared for burial by the family--cleaning and dressing the corpse. However, burial was often two days after the date of death to allow time for examination by the priest, which occurred until the latter part of 19th century as doctors became more common. I think part of this was to assure the person was really dead. There are stories of people being buried alive. The body, in Bohemia, was dressed in what was referred to as grave clothes, and an open coffin display was held at the family home. The family kept watch day and night of the deceased to ward off evil spirits, and probably to assure they were dead. It would be rather unnerving to have a body laid out in the coffin only to hear it sigh. Neighbors would visit, our form of a wake, and bring pictures of saints, a custom that was common until the second part of the last century. 

Burial would usually take place two days after death with the whole village attending. The funeral mass was held and they would process to the cemetery. For the Havel family in Ratiborova Lhota this would be St Jakub's in Lhenice. A mourning period of generally six months was customary. No parties, no large family gatherings and generally no weddings. There were exceptions for weddings for a surviving widow or widower. With young children it was often necessary to remarry  within a couple months to allow the farm work to be accomplished with the raising of children. Farm fields were spread out and a person was required to be home with the children, in case of a widower (which we see in the Havel family), or a widow would remarry to assure that the farm did not pass to the domain and would be farmed and kept until an heir was of age and able to take the farm over. As noted in an earlier post, a domain could claim back a farm for poor management, and it was thought that a farm had to be headed by a married couple to be viable. Again, this occurred with the Havel family.

Matheus Havel (Sr) death 1767 
Died on the 19 Feb, buried 21 Feb
Notes sacraments were administered with name of priest

At this point let us examine what knowledge I presently have of the Havel family in Ratiborova Lhota and their costs for funerals. Overtime, and in varied land registers we see information on some who died, the cost of the funeral, who it was paid by, and the date it was paid. I provide, in the below table, only the year of payment. The registers provide funeral cost information for five persons over a period of 125 years, from Anezka's death in 1642 to 1767 when Matheus Sr passed away. In inheritance cases, which was all but the first, the funds are deducted from the estate value as noted above. In the first instance, the son or stepson of Anezka, Jakub, is deceased and the farm is with Jakub's widow and her new husband Hans. Sometime after Jakub's death, but before 12 Nov 1640 we know that Hans married Jakub's widow Catherina. The 1642 land register notes that Hans paid 2 ſß "against the funeral expenses of the widow Anezka." In this case the payment may have been a partial payment or a full payment. There is not another record of him paying additional funeral expenses for Anezka, so I will leave it at the 2. It may be the year, or because the widow was Catherina's mother-in-law that the cost was so low compared to the other costs. It kind of reminds me of the movie "About Schmidt" when Warren Schmidt's wife dies and he buys her a cheap casket, which his daughter complains about.  Warren did not lack for money, he was after all a VP of actuarial science at Woodman's Insurance in Omaha (a take off on Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co.) I don't think his daughter ever forgave him for what she viewed as a cheap funeral. He defends himself saying it was not the cheapest. She says, yeah, a pine box was the other choice. Anezka, if she had a coffin, was probably a pine box. 

Funeral Cost Table (see below for currency definition)

What is amazing to me is expense. To put it in relevant terms, From Catherina/Hans takeover in 1640 to Matheus Jr takeover in 1767 the farm value is the same--202 Meissen Schock. Yet, with inflation the costs of funerals saw a significant increase over the years. The last funeral cost is about 8 percent of the total farm value. Of course, the farm may be undervalued, but we really don't know. Perhaps land prices were stable in Bohemia in those decades. There were no large moguls buying farm land, or vacation rentals buying houses to skew the market. Perhaps, the farm value really did not change much over that 125 plus year length of time. The cost of Hans' funeral expenses was about 3 percent of the farm value. In addition, the annual debt payment to heirs for the farm was generally at 4 sß per year, meaning that the funeral cost, in all but the first case, exceeded the typical annual heir payment. 

Unfortunately, it is difficult to understand what accounted to the funeral cost. There was likely a cost for the coffin, if there was abought coffin, a stipend to the priest and the church, and perhaps payment for carriage, and other expenses. During this time period families rented their grave sites, so perhaps they made a large payment for a number of years to cover the rental cost of the grave site. As years went by, and grave site  payments ceased, the grave would be used by someone else, often the coffin removed (if still present), but the bones left in place. That is why it is hard to find grave sites of one's ancestors in Bohemia. I had a relative on my mother's side who was head of the Archdiocese of Chicago Cemeteries, and he told me that as land ran out in a cemetery it was not unusual to see caskets were doubled up in a grave. I guess that is not too far off the Bohemian model, although in the US they retained the grave marker. 

Currency Definition:

sß = Meissen Schock Groschen = 60 Meissen Groschen
g = Meissen Groschen = 7 small Pfennig
₰ (d) = Small Pfennig = 2 Heller
h = Heller

Sources: 

Wallish, George Michael 2022. "The Vallis/Wallish Family in South Bohemia: 1623-1901"

http://czechgenealogy.nase-koreny.cz/2012/06/death-and-burial-in-czech-past.html

Trebon Archives Land Registers