San Francisco Mortuary Index Project

Understanding the
Virtual File Cabinet

Images that are indexed in the San Francisco Mortuary Index Project were created by digitally photographing mortuary files from various mortuary companies. Each mortuary file includes information for a deceased individual. Every file included, at a minimum, a front page with the deceased's name and vital information. The file may have also included additional pages such as death certificates, correspondence, receipts, etc.

The files were photographed one after another, similar to the example below. In the example, File 2 starts on Image 7 and File 3 starts on Image 12. Unfortunately, NOT every page/image has the name of the deceased on it. For example, Image 14 in File 3 may not have the name of the deceased anywhere on the page/image. We would have to look at the previous images (12 and 13) to determine who the file belonged to. Image 12, the first page of the file would definitely have the information.

The goal of the indexers is to assign a deceased's name (and, if possible, date-of-death) to every page/image in the deceased's file.

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