Genealogy and How

by Steve Johnson

The use of obituaries as a genealogy research source seems to be very popular among genealogists. In a way, they are like miniature biographies, offering some key critical information. Let's take a closer look.

Types of Obituaries

The most common types of obituaries are:

• Obituaries - These include the "garden variety" of obituaries, to not only announce someone's passing, but to describe that person in a brief way, such as their place of resident, who they are immedately related to, where they may have worked, and perhaps their major accomplishments. Obituaries can be in the form of a classified ad, which most newspapers publish as, but they can also be news articles, particularly if the person was someone of notable mention.

• Memorials - These serve to honor someone in passing, either recently within the past few days, or on an anniversary such as after one year of passing. The content of a memorial doesn't necessarily serve to announce a death, as in the case of obituaries, but to remember that person in a honorable way.

• Notices - Funeral notices or death notices are a more simpler type of obituary, serving only to announce an upcoming funeral or to announce a death. Notices are typically very brief, often only providing the name of the deceased, the date of death, and usually a person or phone number to contact.

Reliability of Obituaries

Perhaps the number one thing to remember about obituaries is that they are not "primary sources". That is, the information presented in an obituary was passed down from the person who witnessed the death (often a family member), and relayed that information to someone else.

Often what happens when someone dies, is that the family members use the services of a funeral home. The funeral home will provide the family with forms to fill out identifying the deceased, the names and relationships of family members, including what text should be used in an obituary.

The funeral home will contact the local newspaper(s) on behalf of the bereaved family, and make arrangements for an obituary. The newspaper editor will prepare an obituary based on the information given, usually condensing the obituary text into something that will fit their page layout.

Thus, the text of an obituary could have been altered, by mistake, during the entire process.

In other cases, a family member can contact a newspaper and arrange the obituary directly. But still, a newspaper editor will condense the obituary into a size that fits into their page layout. Any time information is passed from one person to another, particularly if the information is edited, reliability must come into question.

Best Use of Obituaries

At best, an obituary is best used as a clue. That is, the information provided in an obituary should be used to guide your research, but not be used to fill in the gaps of your finished research.

An obituary might provide the maiden name of a deceased woman, a person's date and place of death, along with surviving family members. Use this information to guide you to primary sources of information, such as a death certificate or birth certificate.

Obituaries can also open up new avenues of research. For example, some obituaries will tell you where the burial will take place, thus providing you with the name of the cemetery. Most obituaries will provide the name of the funeral home that arranged the services, allowing you to contact them to gather additional information.