Batesville, IN -- An Indiana coffin company hopes to make a killing off a new trend: Carrying a deceased loved one around your neck.

The Batesville Casket Company has been making caskets for more than 100 years and is now one of a few companies that make pendants that store a portion of cremated remains.

Company spokesman Joe Weigel says this form of honoring a loved one is increasing in popularity and says funeral directors are telling his company that more families are asking for personal keepsakes than ever before.

While most kinds of cremation necklaces hold "less than a thimble's worth" of cremated remains, Weigel figures families these days want a more portable reminder of a loved one than the large urns the ashes are traditionally put in.

This trend is expected to continue as around one-third of families -- and rising -- are choosing to cremate rather than bury a loved one.

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