October 16, 2015
This is a typical newspaper obituary.
It gives the usual genealogical information, including her name (Ella M. Crofoot), age, & date and place of birth.
I could easily transcribe this information and move onto the next obituary search to find information on more relatives in my family tree– but that would be a mistake.
Why?
I have her obituary – isn’t that what I came for?
Historical newspapers often published two items about the deceased: the obituary and the more compact “death notice.”
Death notices come in all shapes and sizes, and vary from newspaper to newspaper – but, you must look for them while doing your genealogy research or you will miss important clues.
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For example: on the same page of that newspaper, further down along the far right column, there is Ella’s “death notice.”
Comparing both news articles, we quickly see that additional relatives are named in the death notice:
Aunt of Lawrence T. Kemp, Mrs. Olive Skinner, Mrs. Hazel Randall, and Mrs. Ruth Brush.
Good thing we checked or we’d have missed four family members.
Genealogy Tip: Always check for both the Obituary AND the Death Notice. You’ll likely be glad that you did.
Note: FamilySearch International (FamilySearch.org) and GenealogyBank are partnering to make over a billion records from recent and historical obituaries searchable online. The tremendous undertaking will make a billion records from over 100 million U.S. newspaper obituaries readily searchable online. The newspapers are from all 50 states and cover the period 1730 to the present. Find out more at: https://www.genealogybank.com/family-search/
Related Articles:
- Researching Recent Obituaries to Extend My Family Tree
- Peculiar, Unusual, and Stranger-than-Fiction Obituaries
- Pearls of Life Wisdom from Pink Mullaney’s Obituary
- Truly Personal Obituaries from the Recent Obituary Archives
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Another rookie mistake–not getting the newspaper name and date of publication when copying an obit (or any other newspaper article). This obituary says “died Monday,” but without the date and name of newspaper–it’s useless as far as providing a death date goes.