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Don't Think Of Obituaries As Dead-End Streets

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By SHARON TATE MOODY

Tribune correspondent

Published: September 21, 2008

Obituaries usually aren't about someone's death so much as about his or her life and family. From both standpoints, these newspaper notices are extremely valuable to genealogists.

Among the things we usually learn from an obituary are:

•The person's age and possibly even the date and place of birth
•Names of the surviving spouse, parents, children and siblings

•Names of spouses, parents and children who predeceased him or her

•Cause of death

•Occupation, church affiliation, social activities or contributions to community

•Hobbies or activities that made a person unique

•Place of burial

While we welcome each tidbit, experienced family historians know that everything in the report probably is at least secondhand and is to be viewed with suspicion.

Good researchers also will keep in mind that information in an obituary was provided to the newspaper by family members who probably wanted to make the deceased look as good as possible.

A good example of this was my Uncle Blevins, who died in 1959 at the age of 79. The obituary identified him simply as "a member of the Western Union Baptist Church and a retired carpenter."

Reality is that Uncle Blevins was a black sheep of our family. It was generally known in the family that he "preached on Sundays and raised hell all week," as one of my aunts once told me.

The obituary listed his second wife but gave no clue to his first wife who died within weeks of her two infant children - certainly it didn't repeat the community lore that the young wife and two babies had died alone and hungry while he was off making and selling moonshine.

Another minor point about his obituary is that he was a member of "West" Union Church, not "Western,"

Women's Married Names Listed

All too often obituaries identify married women by their husbands' names. During recent research on my husband's family, I found where his great-grandmother died in 1932 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Emory Moody. Another daughter was identified only as Mrs. Roy Elmore.

In cases such as this, the obituary must be used as a steppingstone to other records. It took only a little work to find Emory Moody on the 1930 census and determine that his wife was Emma B. and to find Roy Elmore to determine that his wife was Ruby.

As with all records of genealogical value, obituaries can leave the researcher frustrated. Such was the case of Mrs. Mathew Couch, who died in 1907. Her Calhoun (Ga.) Times obituary did not even provide her given name. It listed her age only as "about 50" and said she was survived by her husband and several children, none of whom were identified.

Sometimes we learn quite literally the value of a person's life from a story about his death. So it was with Jim Couch. His 1886 obituary related how he was shot by E. W. Glenn, "a Texas cowboy who was running a shootin' gallery" in Griffin, Ga. The article related that the two had a "difficulty" resulting from a quarrel about a debt of 15 cents.

If you are just beginning research on a person about whom you know nothing, the tiniest of details will prove valuable. When Sam Wright died in 1918, his obituary told that he died at his house "a few miles east of town ... on his father's plantation four and a half miles east of Calhoun" and that he "was buried in the family cemetery in the same place." So the details gave clues not only about Sam but also about his father.

Although the information is secondhand, newspaper death announcements often give us far more details about a person's demise than the official death certificate. The Marion County (Ga.) Patriot reported on Nov. 12, 1886, that "last week" Will Beavers was in Walker County when he shot a bird that fell into a briar thicket. Will crawled in after it when his gun discharged, "penetrating his brain and killing him instantly."

Death certificates did not exist in Georgia in 1886, but if they had, Will's likely would have listed the cause of death simply as "gunshot wound" and would not have included the details contained in his death announcement.

'He Was A Young Man ...'

Obituaries can deliver interesting minutiae about an ancestor without giving the key evidence we seek. For example, when Charles Cadwell died in Marietta, Ga., in 1887, his obituary related that he had come to the area "from the North, almost a wreck in health and improved rapidly so that he entered into an active business life." "Up north" could mean anything from Tennessee to Canada - but at least you know the general direction to look for his roots.

The obituary went on to tell that Charles had married "the daughter of Mr. S. Gorham," but it didn't reveal her given name. It also said that Charles and the former Miss Gorham had three girl children, but it didn't name them.

Charles's obituary gave the exact time of his death - 7 o'clock on Sept. 7 - but didn't tell when he was born or how old he was. The only clue to his age was a statement that he "was a young man of great energy."

The July 20, 1912, issue of the Hoosier Democrat told that Isaac Studebaker died at his home three miles northeast of Flora, Ind. The announcement gave specifics of his death, detailing how he had been making hay when a rope pulley broke, throwing him from a wagon to his death.

Then the write-up continued to tell that Studebaker had been born in October 1847 on his father John's farm, how he had married Mary Rinehart "about 40 years ago," and that he was buried in the Hoover cemetery near his farm.

Topping the list of family treasures, the obituary gave the full names of Studebaker's four children.

Every family historian should diligently search for obituaries or other newspaper articles about his ancestors' death. You'll probably never find the perfect obituary that answers all questions about the deceased. If you find such a notice, remember to verify each detail with additional research and to question if the deceased "looked" like an angel after his death.

Write to Sharon Tate Moody in care of The Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St., Tampa FL 33606; or e-mail stmoody0720@mac.com.

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