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/.