"[3] In Lincolnshire, funeral biscuits were part of the tradition of telling the bees of their owner's death in the early 19th century.
[4] In early North America, the biscuits were stamped with burial motifs or symbols,[5] such as a winged head or cherub, or an hourglass or skull.
Prepared biscuits were common in the period;[7] a story printed in an 1877 edition of the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine noted, The world must go round as usual, and folks must eat and drink even when their nearest and best are lying low.
[9] Similarly, an 1893 article in the New Orleans Daily Picayune noted, Ladyfingers are served in all parts of England, with light refreshments, at funerals, and usually go by the name of 'funeral biscuits.'
In the Yorkshire Dales, if you are asked to a funeral and are unable to attend, they usually send you, with a memorial card, a piece of spongecake and several ladyfingers folded in a sheet of black-bordered paper and fastened with big, black seals.