Genealogists LOVE Obituaries

Obituaries are filled with wonderful pieces of information such as place of birth, parents names, spouse, children, grand-children. I personally love reading the “old” obits which often would tell the sad story of what caused the death. I once read one that basically said that the poor young man had been stupid (he was killed in an accident) otherwise he’d be alive that day and not a sorrow to his dear mother.

BUT do not assume that all “facts” in an obituary are accurate.

GenealogyBank.com has on their site and in the most recent emails the 7 facts shown in the image. [See the image to the right.] Keep in mind the following:

• The person providing the information may not have the true facts. For example, my maternal grandmother’s given name is incorrect in my mother’s obituary. When I tried to correct it, my father was so upset that I chose to leave it as he gave it rather than cause him even more pain.
• A child (or any of the other descendants) may be left off the list because that person may not be included because the person giving the information has a ‘problem’, justified or not, with that person.
• Dates of birth may not be accurate.

Nevertheless, obituaries are a wonderful genealogy resource.

In some of my lines, the obituary is the only source I have for a birth, death, parents, etc. I include the data in my database. The citing of the source as an obituary tells me that it is a secondary source of information. I continue to research for a primary but in some cases, I will probably never find more than the cited obit.

“In every case, however, any secondary source of information, such as an obituary, must be subjected to further study, research and testing before the information can be relied upon in compiling your family history data.”

~ Source: “Please pay attention to secondary sources versus primary sources of information” by Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith, January 27, 2012.