The price of an obituary usually depended on the word count, the number of insertions, and the inclusion of photos. Newspapers started including them as paid advertisements and began charging for publishing obituaries. The newspaper industry defined a new term for these user-written obituaries, 'Death Notes.' If the obituary needs to tell an important storyĪs centuries went by, and towns turned into cities, families started writing obituaries on their own so that they would include more important details about their relatives.How much time the editors needed to spend researching about the deceased in order to write the obituary.How important they were for the community.The length of a person's funeral obituary depended on several things: Famous people and those whom the editors thought would be of significant general interest would get more detailed obituaries. The newspaper editors used to decide who should have a more comprehensive obituary, based on the deceased's status and popularity in the community. In most cases, an obituary was just a one-liner announcing that a certain person had died. With fewer pages, there was limited space for ads and news articles, so the obituaries were usually very short. The process took time, which is why newspapers only used to have several pages (only four pages in most cases).

As newspapers changed over the years, so did obituaries, but their essence has remained the same to this day.īefore the linotype machine was invented in 1886, publishers used to set by hand the type for printing daily newspapers. Obituaries have been present in newspapers for centuries. Name of cemetery, date and place of the funeral and burial.Details on the longevity of parents and grandparents.Age of spouse (husband, wife) at death and how long ago that was.Names of the towns and cities of residence and how long they lived in each one.Names of children, where they lived, and their position in the family's birth order.Some of the facts you can find in obituaries & death notices: Although obituaries published in newspapers cannot replace the official death records, you can learn critical details about your ancestors. Most of all, an obituary search is often the missing link or the key starting point for learning more about your family history. Obituaries are mini-narratives of a person’s life highlighting major happenings between 'born on' and 'deceased on.' Discover how your ancestors lived, loved, and how they were remembered. Why Search Obituaries for Family History Research?Īn obituary search is more than just knowing when your ancestor died.

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