32 Reasons Why Searching for Obituaries is Like Finding Gold

OK – you won’t get rich when you find an obituary, but your genealogy research will benefit, and your family history research will get richer.

We have a tendency as researchers to underappreciate the value of the documents or articles that we already have acquired, and spend our time looking for new “stuff.” There are so many “facts” and clues that can be retrieved from these artifacts if we just pay attention. And they are just sitting there staring at us. This is especially true for obituaries, in which you need to study every word for clues.

Download the Quicksheet PDF

To obtain the one-page Quicksheet pdf for easy reference of what information to look for, you can download it by clicking on the Download button below:

For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets

Genealogy QuickSheets – Frequently Asked Questions

Quicksheets are also known as Quick Reference Guides. They are generally a one or two page PDF that is downloadable. A few QuickSheets are as large as a five page PDF.
Every QuickSheet is in a specific post on The Ancestor Hunt website. Just bring up the post, and at the bottom of the page is a big brown Download button that allows you to view and/or download the PDF when clicked.
Yes! You can view or download as many as you wish.

9 replies on “32 Reasons Why Searching for Obituaries is Like Finding Gold”

On the Marks example – were the sisters deceased as well? I read the late as pertaining to the list of names that followed. Now I’m wondering if I’ve made errors in my obituary extractions. Thanks!

Good question, Stacey. Actually they were not. They were very much alive. It is tricky to write that properly. Thanks for visiting and thanks for your comment.

re: Doris’s suggestion to list the living relatives first: absolutely correct from a grammatical standpoint. Then “the late” would apply to all names following it. But often, as was true in this case, males could be listed first and then females, or siblings could be in birth order.

It was through an obituary that I discovered my daughter and my son’s best friend since he was 2 years old are 3rd cousins. We always considered Arthur a member of our family…and by golly, he really is family! LOL

31, Helen! Thanks for bringing that up. As I was writing this article, that occurred to me (that the photo was there) and it totally slipped my mind. Great comment. Thanks.

Ok I’m having a real bear of a time my mom and step dad died in zapata texas barrera esate I’m only living son and a maria teresa vargas trustee thief stole my inharintence eception need help finding ptiginalwiill probate bound anfraud deceit and d

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