Now THAT's funny! I guess people had to get married before they would die, and maybe by the time they died, it was too big! ...or something like that! ºÜº Lester M Powers wrote: > > First of all, as a followup to my earlier thought, > let me clarify that, as a percentage of total funerals, > death notices ("So-And-So died. XYZ Funeral Directors > presiding. End.") are very RARE in L.A. too. Rare as > a percentage. > > Deborah's response reminds me that chances of a > death notice seem to go up a bit if the deceased was a > member of a fraternal organization. That might be > something to keep in mind. > > Now. fellow list member Carolyn, who seems to have > been married at Downey, replied on this subject that L.A. > doesn't do wedding announcements either. L.A. (meaning > the whole entire, boring county) is just too crowded and > faceless an outfit to do that. > > Weeeelllllllllll, now, wait a minute. I live in > Torrance, L.A., County, and I scan through films of our > ancient newspaper, "The Torrance Herald," from time to > time. My favorite era is the 1920s and a little after. > I think we have some 1910s too. Anyway, the point is > that southern California is even weirder than you might > suppose. Back around, say, in the 1920s, Torrance had > **NO** obits whatsoever! None. Absolute zero. What we > did have back then was WEDDINGS!!! Lots and lots of > weddings. And wedding announcements. Way back then, > Torrance was a young community, aspiring to grow, and it > was concerned about its image. NOBODY died in Torrance! > Nobody. Not ever. If anyone tried, they were probably > jailed. That would be bad for the community's treasured > image. Instead, folks got married. And had wedding > announcements. Maybe kids too. > > Perhaps some of the non-L.A.ers on the list might > want to consider the above. If your great Uncle Fred > died in L.A. in, oh, say, the 80s, maybe he was married > here in the 20s or 30s. If so, you might have better > luck finding a wedding announcement than you will with an > obit, and it might even have some useful info. At least, > this is the case for Torrance. I don't know about the > other cities, but I think so for mine. The City of Los > Angeles might well be a lost cause for weddings as well > as obits and everything else, even back in ancient times, > but there was once an era when not all of L.A. was so > L.A.-like as it is now. > > I am not sure I can call this note an offer to > volunteer for Torrance wedding lookups. I've never tried > it, so I don't know what's involved or success/failure > rates. What's on my mind is that I'd almost betcha that > nobody has ever tried it. At least not on CALOSANG. We > who live in this faceless sea of buildings see nothing > but obit requests, and obit hunts are almost always > pointless (unsuccessful), and that's a turn-off. > > And, by the way, especially on this list, you might > have better luck if you include the specific city of your > query in your subject line. Just saying "Los Angeles" > doesn't cut it unless you really do mean the City of Los > Angeles (and if you do mean the City of Los Angeles, well, > don't hope for much). > > And if a query doesn't work, you can always take a > shot at getting a film of the old papers on loan at your > own city library, keeping in mind that chances of success > are better if you have the great good fortune to need > information from an outlying city, like Torrance or > Long Beach or Pasadena or Downey or Santa Monica or > Glendale. Downtown L.A. is grim in more ways than one. > > Lester Powers > > ________________________________________________________________ > GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! > Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! > Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: > http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.