Obituaries
Obituaries are heavily used as a source for Genealogy Research. The logic of their use is that they often list a lot of information about an individual, their parents, their brothers and sisters, their children, their grandchildren, et……Plus obituaries can tell some of the person’s life history and activities.
Two problems come from using obituaries in your research. The first problem is the accuracy of the obituary, and the second comes from the use of the obituary itself, and whether or not it is Public Information or Copyrighted information.
Hopefully I can enlighten you to these issues and their answers.
First of all, you must remember that an obituary starts typically at the Funeral Home. Someone gives the funeral home information, which they pass on to the newspapers and various authorities. Thus you have a dual layer of transcription from the informant to the Funeral Home and then from the Funeral Home to the various repositories.
Errors are made every day in Obituaries. The most common of these is the spelling of names. Even relatives who have known family names for years, get them wrong when they are under the duress of giving information to a Funeral Home at the time of death.
The second issue with Obituaries is the use of casual names and Nicknames, instead of formal names of individuals. Bobby vs. Robert, Skipper vs. Ralph and so on. In the older generations, you might assume that it was Robert, but in the last 30 years or so, it really could have been a given name of Bobby. Also, you have pseudo names like Peg for Margaret. While known as a common substitution, you have to verify things. The woman’s name could have been Peg or Margaret.
Another thing you see in Obituaries is wrong dates. People think they remember a birth date or a marriage date, but if there are no documents to verify it presented to the Funeral Director, those incorrect dates stand until corrected.
The last big hassle in obituary is the way the information is disseminated. For instance, the obituary lists the deceased and that person’s five children. Then it lists the 25 grandchildren in no particular order and with no notation of who belongs to which child. It can take years to untangle this kid mess, if you don’t have other sources to cross reference.
The second half of the issue about using obituaries in your research is copyright and source. I have seen great debates about proper use and citation. Lately, many newspapers have gotten into the habit of putting only pieces of obituaries on their web sites, so researchers can’t copy them without subscribing to the paper. Being a writer, I love and use Copyright fully. But, I also know that everything that is printed on the Internet is subject to theft or public “fair” use. I also know that an attorney and the courts can work wonders against a Copyright thief.
Personally, I think newspapers are crazy to restrict obituaries. A lot of people want that information for one reason or another and the text in the obituary is probably just a reprint from the Funeral Home. The days of the newspaper actually writing the obituary are fading fast. It’s all done by fax or email so one could ask, “Who really owns the obituary Copyright?” The newspaper will claim it because they are the publisher. It’s murky as far as I am concerned and I don’t think anyone should be claiming restrictive copyright.
Never believe anything you see in an obituary. It could all be correct or it could be dead wrong. Take the time to corroborate all the information in the obituary. It could be all fiction or full of great facts!
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