Mining Information From Obituaries and Death Notices

There’s a wealth of genealogical information to be found in obituaries and death notices published in newspapers around the world - if you know where, and how, to find it.

In many publications, obituaries are called "Death Notices", but in some, "Obituaries" and "Death Notices" are two separate pieces of information; with the obituary being a short, free service and the death notice being a longer piece (usually sold as classified advertising) that reads more like a life story. In the case of a well-known person, a news story may also have been written. Any of these articles may or may not contain a photograph of the deceased.

Because of these different ways deaths can be reported by publications, be sure you always ask someone at the newspaper where you are researching if the publication carries both death notices and obituaries, or only obituaries, as sometimes, there is more information to be found than first appears.

Sometimes, hiring a paid researcher with experience in going through these files, or a service that specializes in organizing information - including obituaries - can cut years off your search. Many already have alphabetized lists. Others specialize in certain geographical areas. And these services, which can be hired for a fee, can yield a faster result.

No matter how you look at it, obituaries can lead to a bonanza of information. First, they give the dates and places of birth and death. They list survivors, and often previously-deceased kin, including parents and grandparents. They could give information about colleges, universities or degrees earned; types and places of employment and military titles and honors.

All of these things are only slices of this ancestor’s life and each of them can lead to a whole new area in the ancestor’s file. Remember: always record the source as well as the information. A collection of paperwork means very little unless you’re able to piece it together in a manner that makes sense.

Most newspapers now have their obituaries (and death notices) online. Some publications are also trying to back-date their online information, with clerks entering information from before the invention of the Internet. But this process is slow and costly, so most information prior to the early 1990s is either found on microfilm or in old newspapers that are bound in books, placed numerically on storage shelves, or in boxes numbered by year.

Publications that have their information on microfilm usually allow the public to sit at a viewer and go through the material available in the year, month or day in question. The more information you have, the easier it is to search. If all you have is a year of death, you’ll have to go through the whole year of microfilm. If you have the month and year you’ll be able to roll the film straight to that month. Having an exact date of death enables you to view only one day, saving hours of eyestrain from going through pages and pages of newspapers on microfilm one frame at a time.

Again, people who do this for a living have it down to a science, and can often shave many hours off the research; and turn up information an amateur may not recognize as important.

Remember too that the older the newspaper, the less chance the publishing staff will allow the public to touch it. Still, many have clerks who will do it for a fee; both for amateurs and professionals.

So now you’re armed with information that can lead to all kinds of records – from colleges, universities, the military and city halls. But wait a minute - you’ve overlooked two of the most important pieces: the funeral home and the cemetery, both of which have records too. In fact, many times it’s the funeral director who gathers the information from the family to put in the obituary while the funeral is being arranged.

So don't forget those small lines at the bottom of the obituary, or death notice, or whatever it may be called: "Arrangements by "AnyTown Funeral Home", and "Burial will take place May 3 at AnyTown Cemetery, 555 Cemetery Hill Road, Toledo, Washington".

Those two little pieces of information could take you farther than you ever dreamed you could go!

Searching for obituaries online? Beware of scammers. Read my report first.