Newspaper Obituaries Can Provide Missing Links

Genealogists are likely to pick up a newspaper in any town where they are paying a visit, conducting business or just passing through. We're after the obituary section, a standard feature in newspapers.

An obituary section, even in an out-of-town newspaper, may yield the missing link in our family histories. So we look for familiar surnames of ancestors, and if we're really lucky, discover the family of the deceased is connected to ours.

This is an example: An obituary says the parents of the deceased migrated to the area from the same town where your great-grandpa lived. In this case, you could contact his survivors to express your condolences and inquire discreetly if anyone in the family has an interest in their history. Many cousins have "found each other" through this routine.

Of course, we don't always need to travel to see the death notices. Many of today's newspapers are online and their obituary archives can be accessed from home computers. This is a good way to find someone who has died in recent years.

But not only can present-day obituaries lead to significant clues. We want to look at the ones found in decades-old newspapers, too.

New family historians quickly discover that most local and state governments did not keep vital records such as birth and death certificates until the 20th century. The only record of the vital events in an ancestor's life may be a very old obituary notice.

Fortunately, physical access to the printed page isn't always necessary. Copies of some newspapers have been preserved on microfilm. Or they have been digitized; some collections include newspapers dating to the 18th century.

For the past 30 years or so, genealogical and historical societies have taken on projects that preserve their local town and community newspapers on microfilm. The microfilm is usually available at the area's libraries or society offices.

You can find microfilmed newspapers at www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html. Through this link I discovered the Georgia Newspaper Project at the University of Georgia. All of its microfilmed papers are listed on the Web site, www .libs.uga.edu/gnp/index.html, where rolls of microfilm can be ordered for $35 each.

Placing keywords in a search engine such as Google may net information on some of the projects to preserve newspapers through microfilm or digital formats. You could also go to a major site, such as Genealogy Bank, accessible with paid subscriptions.

The Internet tends to be a rich resource: More and more projects are under way to digitize entire newspapers, including obituaries, and place them on the Internet. We now can find digitized versions of newspapers printed in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

A place to begin an Internet obituary search is at the USGenWeb Obituary Project at www.usgwarchives.org/obits. This is a volunteer site that contains obituaries from a variety of sources.

Your second Internet stop could be Obit Central, www.obitcentral.com/obit search. This site allows you to see available obituary resources for each state. Once at the site, you can click on any state to get a summary of research sites; you'll quickly see resources vary greatly by state.

But if you still can't find what you want - and you can't get your hands on old newspaper microfilm - you may want to turn to the online fee-based subscription sites. They can be worth the fees to explore their treasures. Here are a few I can recommend:

•Obits Archive at www .obitsarchive.com allows you to view up to 100 obituaries in each 30-day period you subscribe. The cost is $19.95 a month. Or you can view a single obituary for $2.95.

•Newspaper Archives at www.newspaperarchives.com offers an annual subscription for $74.99 or a single-month subscription for $12.99. Of course, this subscription allows searching the newspaper for more than obituaries. Those considering a subscription can view a list of newspapers on the site before offering up their credit cards.

•Genealogy Bank at www.genealogybank.com offers a 14-day trial subscription for $9.95. This site also has a $19.95 rate for a month or $69.95 for a full year. It has an impressive collection of papers and, as with Newspaper Archives, you can view a list of available papers before you subscribe.

•Ancestry at www.ancestry .com also offers newspapers and obituary collections with its $155 annual subscription.

A word of caution before you hit the "pay" button on a subscription site: Some of the monthly subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each month - beware of this or you may have to pay for more months than you want.

Next week's column will explore what you can expect to find in obituaries and how to use them as a steppingstone to more research.

Confederate Group Meeting

"The United States Flag Code," presented by Annie-Kate Carpenter, will be the September program for the Tampa Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The meeting is open to anyone interested in joining the organization.

Reservations must be made by Monday at noon. Call Gail Crosby at (813) 839-8056 or June Bolen at (813) 685-4026. The meeting will begin at 10:45 a.m. Saturday at Perkins Restaurant, 12650 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa. Attendees will order lunch from the menu and pay individually.