The State Library and Archives is full of genealogy records, but these funeral programs make this collection unique. "The funeral program, though, will give us a real look into their life.

Black-owned newspapers and funeral programs played a major role in preserving Black history. A local library is making it easier to access that history by putting it on the Internet.

Richard Funeral Home partners with Dr. Antoinette Harrell, a respected historian and genealogist, to help preserve Black history by collecting obituaries.

The federal government program designed to help cover funeral costs for people who have died of COVID-19 was inundated with more than 1 million calls on its launch day.

Since its launch, FEMA said via email that this program has received the largest number of funeral assistance applications in the agency’s history. FEMA has run into several roadblocks.

Searchlight New Mexico spoke with seven funeral home directors, all of whom said they are distributing information about the FEMA program to anyone whose family member died of COVID-19.

Davis wants to make the funeral collection a community project and she is enlisting volunteers to help collect, scan, and archive the programs. Volunteers contact her at (225) 245-3753.