I want my main character to be a mortician (or as close to a mortician as existed), it's central to the story but I'm not quite sure how to go about things. I don't know how death was handled back then. Did they have funeral homes? Who made the coffins? Who buried the bodies? What were they called? Was it all one person? Was it a family business? How much money did they earn? Where they well off? Where were bodies kept? Were they buried immediately? How deep were bodies buried? General things like that concerning the actual business of death, not really funerals themselves. And also I need info on body-snatchers if possible.
I've googled every search term I could possibly think off and gone to all the closest libraries but haven't found anything useful. Only recently did I discover this place. I have seen a few books online concerning funerals during that time but can't find previews of them and I can't find them at libraries and don't want to buy something without knowing it will give me the answers I want. I'm afraid they'd only contain information concerning the actual funerals which I don't really care for.
I know those were lots of questions but any help is appreciated.
