By India Patel, NEDCC Book Conservation Intern 2024
In 2023, Assistant Town Clerk Meghan Jones of Wilmington, Massachusetts brought Death Records 1940 –1947 to the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) for evaluation. The unassuming cloth-covered volume was comprised of printed forms, each titled “Standard Certificate of Death.” The forms were filled out in handwritten and typewritten ink and had been bound together.
Significantly, the volume contains the death records of four World War II soldiers whose bodies were repatriated to Wilmington as part of a large-scale effort by the US Army to transport and bury the remains of the dead after the War. They are important documents describing individual lives lost and historical sources that shed light on the history of Wilmington and the War.
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Vital Records
Taken as a whole, Death Records illuminates the strange meeting place of the private details of death and the bureaucracy required to document them. The volume is an example of a “vital record,” the kind kept by the government to keep track of life events such as the births, deaths, and marriages of residents. In Massachusetts, town clerks’ offices have kept extensive records of this type since just after the founding of the colony.
Each record includes the “Personal and Statistical Particulars” of the deceased, including birthplace, occupation (“chemist,” “electrician,” “painter,” “laborer”), family members’ names, length of stay in the community of Wilmington, as well as a medical certificate of death that outlines the cause of death and funerary details. The records include the name of an informant and their relationship to the deceased (“sister,” “friend,” “father”).
Throughout the body of the forms, in the margins, and on their versos are instructions that describe the customs and rules surrounding the death, as well as how the personal details will be used statistically. They include notices to undertakers about the permits required for burial and rules that dictate the use of embalming fluids on bodies. Physicians are instructed to “underline the cause to which the death should be statistically charged.” “Precise statement of occupation is very important,” the form warns, “so that the relative healthfulness of various pursuits can be known.” Deep in the margins of the forms are the unequivocal instructions to “WRITE PLAINLY WITH UNFADING BLACK INK - THIS IS A PERMANENT RECORD.”
WWII Health Permit Markers
A focus of the treatment proposal was the conservation and digitization of death records of four soldiers who died in World War II. These records were accompanied by (and in some cases damaged by) Health Permit Markers, standard documents that were affixed to the coffins of soldiers whose remains were returned to the United States after WWII. When Death Records came to NEDCC, these Markers were adhered and stapled to the death records of the soldiers they corresponded to, and in some cases were causing damage to the records themselves.
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Meghan Jones, assistant town clerk, provided background information about the significance of the Markers, which, as historical sources themselves, point to the labor, complex bureaucracy, and incredible logistic efforts required to identify, transport, and bury the remains of the dead after WWII. Jones’s research included a 1946 article on the work of the Quartermaster Corps, a branch of the army tasked with “Mortuary Affairs,” to identify those killed in the War. The remains of the dead, sometimes buried in temporary cemeteries, were identified using identification tags, personal papers, dental records, fingerprints, personal effects, serial numbers on watches, and handwriting on scraps of paper. The government gave families the option to bury their loved ones in military or private cemeteries, at home or overseas. For those who chose to transport their loved ones’ bodies back to their communities, a detailed process was required. Bodies were (in some cases) disinterred from temporary cemeteries. The caskets were examined for damage, repaired, and affixed with Health Permit Markers, each of which states that “use of the seal of the United States signifies compliance with all applicable health and sanitary laws and regulations.” The caskets were then shipped to the train station closest to the deceased’s final resting place, picked up by a funeral director identified by the next of kin, and buried. The Markers gesture at this history and their preservation was an important part of the treatment of the volume.
Treatment Goals
When designing treatments, conservators ask many questions, including: What is the meaning of the object? How will it be used and to whom is it significant?
Jones highlighted the importance of ensuring the survival of these records, and in particular, those death records pertaining to the World War II veterans. With one exception amongst the four, these are the only records of their deaths in existence. Jones pointed both to the importance of preserving the information, which without treatment and digitization was at risk of being lost, and also to the artifactual value of the physical records themselves, revealed in details such as the handwriting of relatives recording the death of a loved one and the Markers that describe the lives lost in WWII and the enormous bureaucratic processes that were required in the wake of the war.
The Markers were backed with adhesive so that they could be affixed to the soldiers’ coffins during transport. Two of these Markers had been adhered directly to the pages of the volume. The pressure-sensitive adhesive had darkened and stained the paper significantly, and impaired legibility to the documents on the facing pages. Other damage such as surface dirt, pressure-sensitive tape, small tears, and staples were also present throughout the volume.
Treatment and Imaging
During treatment, the pages were surface cleaned where necessary with a vulcanized rubber eraser and mended with Japanese Kozo and wheat starch paste. Staples, paper clips, and pieces of pressure-sensitive tape were carefully removed.
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One of the Health Permit Markers had been adhered on top of handwritten information, and needed to be removed so that these records could be ready for digitization. The Marker was carefully lifted with a microspatula: the key was to move steadily and slowly. The Markers left behind a relatively thick layer of adhesive that was subsequently carefully removed with an adhesive pickup eraser and spatula. One Marker was lined with archival paper to prevent it from doing damage to the record beneath it. The Markers, along with other loose documents, were reattached to the pages using Kozo paper hinges and wheat starch paste. The hinges allow the attached materials to be lifted, revealing the information below. Unfortunately, it was not possible to reduce the adhesive stains left behind by the Markers.
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The death records of the WWII veterans and other badly stained pages were digitized by NEDCC’s Imaging Services Lab. Full color facsimile prints were created of each of the stained leaves. Although the adhesive stains on the original will continue to darken with age, the digital images and associated facsimile prints have captured the written information and will allow the Town of Wilmington to provide continuing access to these documents.
Conclusion
The maintenance of vital records such as Death Records 1940 –1947 is a key function of Town Clerks’ offices and an important part of how history is preserved.
Within the volume, each record tells the story of individual lives – primarily those of the deceased and their families – and where those lives intersect both with their locality and the wider historical record. They are an important resource for genealogical and scholarly research and their conservation and digitization, where needed, ensures their accessibility.
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This project was funded with support from the Massachusetts State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) Veteran's Heritage Grant.
Town of Wilmington - wilmingtonma.gov/town-clerk
The mission of the Town Clerk’s Office is to uphold the integrity of the Town’s democratic process, to maintain and preserve public records, and to act in the best interest of the Town and the Commonwealth by providing efficient, innovative, and quality services in a fair and impartial manner to all.
Northeast Document Conservation Center
Founded in 1973, the NEDCC is a non-profit specializing in the conservation of book and paper collections, digital imaging, audio reformatting, preservation training, assessments, and consultations.
For more information, visit the Resources for Municipal and County Clerks.