The next Genealogy meeting will be held Wednesday April 2 at 1 pm in the Cedar Room. Guest speaker will be Lynn Brown whose topic is “Timelines and Tables.” What is a Timeline? Why use timelines? Various uses in research, publications, reports, and advanced family research. Lynn has been involved in genealogy research since 1988. This topic should be of interest to all levels of genealogy.

Sometimes overlooked in the search for relatives dead or alive are documents relating to the death of a relative – namely, death certificates, obituaries, records from the church, cemetery records, Social Security application. These documents can provide the names of the parents, siblings, children of the deceased as well as other family members.

Death certificates issued by the county or state have been in existence since the early 1900’s. Prior to that they could be listed in a log usually with the age and date of death, sometimes listing the cause of death. The official death certificate will usually list the parents and the name of the individual providing information for the certificate.

Cyndi’s list provides the vital records information for states and counties at http://www.cyndislist.com/deaths.htm#States

Obituaries have been listed in newspapers for several hundred years. They can be a short sentence of the decedent’s name, age and cause of death in the Vital Statistics section to an extended article about the decedent and his family. Frequently listed will be the spouse, children, siblings. The church and or cemetery of the service and burial is usually listed. The obituary is usually printed within a few days to several weeks after the death, depending on the number of publications per week.

Obituaries are most often found in the local newspaper of the town the decedent lived in. There are many websites that are providing historical as well as more recent newspapers on line. Ancestry.com has newspapers. Once again, Cyndi’s list is a good place to find websites that provide newspapers - http://www.cyndislist.com/newspapr.htm

The library for that locality usually has copies of the newspapers or has them on microfilm. Send a request for the obituary stating the name of the decedent and date and place of death.

Family records will sometimes have obituaries that were cut out of the newspaper. Through http://raogk.com (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness) you can find a volunteer who will find the obituary for you.

Church records – in the past churches recorded the name, date of death and date of the funeral service. Contact the church or local genealogy society to find out where the records are kept.

Cemeteries/mortuaries – records have usually been kept by cemeteries about the people who are buried there. These records may have names of other family members who are either buried there or were those who arranged for the burial.

Dead Fred is a website where people submit photos of headstones in order for others to locate their family members and not have to travel to the cemetery. You might consider adding your family’s headstone photos to this site.

http://usgenweb.com can give you information on the cemeteries located in the area where you are researching.

Social Security record. More recently Social Security has made available the application for a SS number after the person dies. It is free to use the SSDI index; however, there is a charge to get a copy of the original application that your ancestor completed.

Use http://ssdi.rootsweb.com to locate your relative. For more information about the SSDI, use http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson10.htm

Click here to return to Genealogy Main Menu