Issue 51.11
More often than not, the obituary notice is the only “biographical sketch” that has ever been devoted to some of our ancestors. The wealth of genealogical and biographical information to be found in an informative obituary makes the effort of searching for one worthwhile. For many of our ancestors and relatives the obituary will provide much needed information. In addition to names, dates, and places of birth, marriage, and death, the obituary often identifies relationships of the deceased as a child, sibling, parent, grandparent, etc. to numerous other individuals. Also, in older obituaries, often times there were listed many relatives attending from out of town – another source of information to open up new research avenues.
There are many places to find obituary notices online. You can search the local newspaper’s website for obituaries. Cyndi’s List has a whole Category for obits at: http://www.cyndislist.com/obituaries/
One of my favorites is Legacy.com (not to be confused with Legacy Family Tree) at http://www.legacy.com/NS/ their theme is “Where life stories live on.” You can search millions of obituaries from more than 800 newspapers worldwide. They also have featured obituaries, as I am writing this I am sad to note that Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H fame has passed. Interestingly enough, it was on December 7, 2011 and he was 96.
Lots of times I will Google http://www.google.com/ the name of someone I am researching and find them listed in an obituary notice giving me many leads to information and to other relatives. I love when they list the children and give their place of current residence because then I know where to look for them in other records.
You can also go to the FamilySearch Research Wiki https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Main_Page and type in obituaries and a whole selection (2, 267 today) will come up listing everything from LDS Obituaries to Jewish Obituaries from New Zealand Obituaries to Germans from Russia Obituaries. Check them out and hopefully your ancestor wasn’t like this woman:
A woman goes into the local newspaper office to submit an obituary for her recently deceased husband. The obit editor informs her that the fee for the obituary will be 50 cents a word. She pauses for a moment and then says, “Well, then it read, ‘Billy Bob died.’” Amused at the woman’s thrift, he says, “Sorry ma’am, there is a seven word minimum on all obituaries.” Only a little flustered she thinks it over and then says, “In that case, let it read, ‘Billy bob died, golf clubs for sale.’”
For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com (435) 628-4900.