I had an ancestor show up on the census four years after he died.  Now THAT is confusing, as we had the newspaper obit.  One of life's little mysteries.  Pat Our Regan Cousins: http://cousintocousin.tribalpages.com   --- On Sun, 9/14/08, Don Krieger <dkrieger@alum.mit.edu> wrote: From: Don Krieger <dkrieger@alum.mit.edu> Subject: [CASANFRA] Directory Listings for the Deceased To: CASANFRA@rootsweb.com Date: Sunday, September 14, 2008, 9:41 AM I definitely concur that the deceased often continue to be listed in directories. This is particularly true of phone books. Usually the family phone is listed in the name of the husband. If he dies but the rest of the family remains in the home, the listing may remain in his name for 20 years or longer. City directories are usually a bit better. I have not seen erroneous listings persist for decades although I'm sure that it happens. But the mechanism for maintaining the listings is obviously different than for phone listings where all that matters is if the bill continues to be paid. Don snip