Funeral Card Friday: Margaret "Peggy" (NEVE) DeVRIES

Funeral card of Margaret DeVries, Ellwood City,Pennsylvania; DeVries Family Papers, digitized and privately held by Miriam Robbins Midkiff, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Spokane, Washington. This item was passed from the estate of Adrian and Ruth (Hoekstra) DeVries to their granddaughter, Miriam Robbins Midkiff in 2008.

This beautiful funeral card of the wife of my granduncle, Calvin J. DeVRIES, is an unusual one in my collection. The reason is that as far back as I can research in my biological, adoptive and step-family lines, our family has been Protestant pretty much since the Reformation, and this is a Catholic funeral card.

Margaret "Peggy" NEVE was a lovely woman of Italian heritage who may have met my granduncle "Cal" during his service in World War II. I don't know if Aunt Peggy was born in Italy or if she was an American with Italian roots. In fact, I don't know a whole lot about Aunt Peggy except that she was Italian, Catholic, and died tragically young from cancer. I don't even know if I ever had a chance to meet her; I'll have to check my mother's letters to see if we ever visited Cal and Peggy during one of our trips to the "Lower 48" when I was a baby.

I have been in touch with Cal and Peggy's children and grandchildren over the years, sending them information on the DeVRIES family which I have researched. This post reminds me that I should get back in touch and obtain some more information to fill out the family tree a little better on Aunt Peggy's side.

Thanks to Dee Akard Welborn for this great Friday theme! Dee encourages others to highlight their funeral card collection on the first Friday of each month.