Obituaries in Your Research

    As genealogists, we are just as interested in mundane details about an individual’s life as larger ones. Getting birth, marriage, death, and divorce information about someone is essential in building out a biography, while the minor details, like hobbies, occupations, and achievements, help flesh out a story and bring it to life. 

    Obituaries are most commonly found for ancestors deceased within the last 120 years and are a great way to help fill in these peripheral details about a person’s life. 

What Can Obituaries Do For You?
    Obituaries are something of open-ended questions for researchers. We aren’t certain there was an obituary published unless we have first-hand knowledge of it. If our searches turn up empty, are we not finding it because it does not exist or because we are not searching the right location? Also, we do not know what information is included or if it will be accurate. Despite these challenges, obituaries provide a wonderful glimpse into an ancestor’s life. 

   Some things an obituary may provide you with include: 
  • Birth, death, and burial dates and locations
  • Marriage dates and spouse names
  • Children and grandchildren names
  • Names of siblings and respective spouses
  • Occupation, Hobbies, Religion 

Where Can You Find Obituaries?
    Obituaries can usually be found printed or online in newspapers, or online from funeral homes local to the deceased’s last place of residence. A person who dies in Sioux City probably won’t have an obituary in New York City, for example. 

    Newspapers often have a recent archive available online. A quick search of the newspaper’s website will help locate the archive. Sometimes these will cost money to view articles or gain access to the archive.

    If the newspaper does not keep an archive, or the date of the possible obituary is outside the range of the online archive, searching repository sites like the Library of Congress, Google Newspaper, FultonSearch, and SmallTownPapers can help track down a local newspaper. 

    Another possibility is a local library. Infrequently, local libraries will have an index of obituaries or may have access to local papers via their online resources. Even if you are not a member, contacting the library for assistance will usually pay off if they have a holding that might be of use for your research. 

Modern Obituaries
    Modern burial packages often include an online obituary hosted by the funeral home’s website. This move towards online obituaries was fueled by the overall decline of newspapers and brings with it a variety of challenges. 

    Because these obituaries are online, we can no longer access an archive at a college or library to get that old newspaper that has grandma’s obituary. Some funeral homes host obituaries for a predetermined amount of time before they either disappear or end up behind a paywall. 

    Obituaries offer genealogists and family historians a wealth of information. Sometimes difficult to find, the payoff is typically worth the effort it takes to find them. For assistance in finding more obituaries, I have a list of free newspaper resources over on the Genealogy Resources section of this site. 

Happy Researching, 
- Patricia Gray

at Location: Portland, OR, USA No comments
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Free Surname Chart with Soundex

 

    


    Have you ever had an ancestor that seemed to have a different spelling with each census and vital record they filled out? There are a few basic search tips for dealing with surnames like this, including using the ‘Sounds like’, ‘Similar’, and ‘Soundex’ options on Ancestry. These let you search for names that are pretty close to the term that you entered, a more comprehensive way to search a database than just with a single keyword.


Soundex is a particularly helpful tool when researching names that tend to be frequently misspelled. In short, a Soundex code consists of a letter and three numbers, assigned to a word based on a Soundex coding guide. 


The last name Rybczak, for instance, would be R-122 and Ashcraft would be A-261. There are various tools available to help with these conversions, but it’s nice to know the how behind the method.    


The last name Wajdak, one I research often, has a soundex code of W232. Wojtak, Wojdak, and Wojtach are also found under this code, so searching W232 searches all these names at once, as well as the dozens of others that fall under this code. 


Knowing the Soundex code of a name you frequently search will not be the end of your searching woes, I assure you! But it is one more tool in your genealogy toolbox that you can use to help find what you are searching for. 


To help my research on names I find frequently misspelled, I started keeping a list of surname variants I came across and where they appeared. This not only lets me keep track of possibilities to use in future database queries, but also helps me analyze differences in surnames over time. 


After a few requests, I published the fillable chart I personally use but wanted to add something to it. The second page contains a mini-lesson on Soundex along with some outbound links that take you directly to a Soundex converter. There’s room on the chart for numerous spelling variations of a surname along with the sources where you found various spellings. 


To get access to the free, interactive/fillable PDF, you need to make a quick account over at my MemberVIP page and then you’ll get instant access to my Fillable Surname Chart with Soundex.


Happy Researching!

- Patricia Gray


at Location: Portland, OR, USA No comments
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