Friday, March 2, 2012

The Value of Obituaries

My mother passed away last summer, and I took on the task of writing her obituary. I am the writer of the family, and, being the historian as well, I've read my share of obituaries. It was my chance to let people know a tiny bit about who my mother was. It was also an opportunity to convey important genealogical data. For my mother's obit, I made sure every one's names were spelled correctly.

I always get a little excited when I find an obituary from an ancestor, because there is a wealth of information in those few hundred words. First of all, an obit gives the names of the immediate family. For wives, a genealogist often is missing the maiden name or parent's names if census data or other sources are used.

Likewise, many databases, Ancestry.com included, restrict data about living people from the public record. So the names of those younger survivors are vital. In the same fashion, the names of the spouses of the descendants are usually given, or at the very least the last name.

I've started researching entire families from just one obituary. You have three generations of names, grandparents, parents, and children, maybe even grandchildren. You have the date of death of the deceased. With that much, you can hit other genealogical resources, like Ancestry.com, and get decent results.

Another piece of data that is often difficult to find in other ways is the cemetery in which the person is buried. I'm a completist when it comes to genealogy. It makes me happy, if I can add the burial data to my records.

In a future post, I'll discuss obituary resources on the web.