1 Obituaries - A Treasure Trove for Genealogists 1. Introduction 2. Importance of Obituaries to Genealogists a. How I do my work b. The information gap: 1940 until now c. Reliability of information in obits 3. History of Obituaries a. Prior to WWI – deaths were news stories or “local” gossip items b. Since WWI – special section in newspaper c. Why newspaper obits may be a dying resource d. Funeral home and newspaper web sites 4. Sources of Obituaries a. Google 1. Always use ”Google Advanced Search” at: http://www.google.com/advanced_search 2. Words to insert (see last page of this handout) 3. Search by name, year, location, language 4. Drawbacks to using Google a. Newspaper web sites and fees charged b. When Google shouldn’t be used b .Google News Archive Advanced Search at: http://news.google.com/archivesearch/advanced_search 1. Often snippets of obits – remainder for a fee 2. Use same search words as with Advanced Google
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Obituaries - A Treasure Trove for Genealogists
1. Introduction 2. Importance of Obituaries to Genealogists a. How I do my work b. The information gap: 1940 until now c. Reliability of information in obits 3. History of Obituaries
a. Prior to WWI – deaths were news stories or “local” gossip items b. Since WWI – special section in newspaper c. Why newspaper obits may be a dying resource d. Funeral home and newspaper web sites
4. Sources of Obituaries a. Google 1. Always use ”Google Advanced Search” at: http://www.google.com/advanced_search 2. Words to insert (see last page of this handout) 3. Search by name, year, location, language 4. Drawbacks to using Google a. Newspaper web sites and fees charged b. When Google shouldn’t be used b .Google News Archive Advanced Search at: http://news.google.com/archivesearch/advanced_search
1. Often snippets of obits – remainder for a fee 2. Use same search words as with Advanced Google
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c. Legacy.com http://www.legacy.com/NS/
d. Commercial News Banks (LexisNexis, etc.) (fee based) e. GenealogyBank.com - http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ (fee based) see their extensive list of newspapers at http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/newspapers/sourcelist/ 1. GenealogyBank’s Newspaper Obituaries data base 2. GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspapers data base
f. Obituary Links Page - http://www.obitlinkspage.com/ (fee based)
g. Find-a-Grave - http://www.findagrave.com/ (many obits included) h. Newspaper/Library/Funeral home web sites
5. Other Tools to Use When Searching a. Intelius - http://www.intelius.com/ b. Social Security Death Index – free access at the FamilySearch web site at
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1202535 and also at Mocavo at http://www.mocavo.com/records/ssdi c. Ancestry.com - http://www.ancestry.com/ (fee based) 6. Problem Obits a. Complexities of the “modern” family structure b. Poorly written obits c. Obits written to hide family secrets 7. Reasons Why You Might Want to Write Your Own Adrian J. Gravelle 13 October 2012
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Some Suggested Search Terms: “all these words” --- family name plus other words such as place of death and/or year of death “this exact word or phrase” --- “Mass of Christian burial,” “Requiem Mass,” “memorial service,” “funeral services,” “survivors include,” “surviving are” “any of these words” --- “death,” “burial,” “cremation” - or - “deaths,” “obituaries,” “obituary” “none of these words” --- [put here any words that your initial search shows are interfering with your search]
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