Riesinger Funeral Home Records

The collection contains a few photographs, financial ledgers, and substantially, the funeral record and ledger books documenting individual funerals. The collection covers the years 1902-1958, however, the records for individual funerals date from 1902-1948 and 1951-1952. The funeral record and ledger books document the impact of local and world events on an individual level. For example, the 1913 ledger documents the after effects of the Dayton Flood. The 1918 and 1919 ledgers reflect the world-wide influenza epidemic. Car crashes and automobile-related fatalities become a major cause of death, especially among younger people, from the mid-1920s on. In addition, the records are a wealth of information for genealogists. Riesingers was known for providing service to the Hungarian population and other ethnic groups in Dayton. The collection is arranged into three series as follows.

Series I, Photographs, 1905-1929, 1942, is a small series containing four folders of photographs. The photographs are from a 1919 Christmas event hosted by Frank Riesinger to entertain children, and also shows the chapel and outside of the Frank Riesinger Funeral Home at 1334 West Third Street in 1919. Photographs of children and crowds gathered outside the Robert Riesinger building in 1927, show a Santa Clause and elf, along with the Dayton Drum Corps and Frank Riesinger. In addition is a folder of 10 photographs removed from inside the funeral record books in Series II. The photos are unlabeled, but likely of individuals whose funerals were arranged by Riesinger. On the back of each photos is a reference to the ledger and page number from which the photograph was removed.

Series II, Funeral Record and Ledger Books, 1902-1952, is the heart of the collection, consisting of the funeral and ledger books maintained by the funeral home on individual funerals. These books were generated by year. Please note that many loose documents within individual log books were removed and foldered. These folders are listed first in the inventory, and are in order by year. The pages of each record log book includes a place to enter the name of the deceased, place of birth, date of birth, if a war veteran, place of death, death date, age at death, cause of death, sex, color, if married, occupation, name of father and mother, time and place of funeral service, interment place and date, and casket details. Please note that all the information was not always filled in. Sometimes a clipping of the obituary is included.

The researcher should be aware of the following when using the collection:

• In front of every ledger is an index listing each funeral alphabetically by surname, with a page number for the funeral record. A “Ready Reference’ section lists all the funerals by month. Unfortunately the Ready Reference is not always filled out, especially for the later years. • Some of the individual records are very incomplete. • The years 1902-1905 are in one ledger. • The years 1905-1907 are also in one ledger. • There are no ledgers for the years 1908, 1909, and 1920. • The ledger dated 1919 contains: o 1918 November – 1919 November o 1922 December 30 – 1924 June o 1930 May 22 – 1932 April 3 • Part of January 1924 is in the 1923 ledger. • Part of 1925 is in the 1926 ledger. • The 1935 ledger also lists funerals dated from Jan. 4-17, 1936 • The 1942 ledger also lists funerals dated from Jan. 1-5, 1943 • The 1945 ledger also lists funerals dated from Jan. 3-4, 1946

Series III, Financial Records, 1917, 1931-1956, contains 13 financial log books. The bulk of the books are a record of expenses and income. In the back of several of the books is an inventory for the business.