OCTOGENARIAN TILTS AT WINDMILL by David W. Dole <dwdole@fishnet.com> <http://www.obituarycoding.com/ I am trying to induce newspapers to adopt the insertion into every obituary they publish (death list or news item) a 15-character code, which a decade (or a century) later, in the next town (or on the other side of the globe) will allow any genealogist, historian, researcher, or librarian working with an obituary, clipped from its paper and unidentified as to source or date, to identify the paper, its location, and the publication date. The coding is only 15 characters and can be in very small type if space is tight. All one has to do is go on the Internet to the PGCS Web site <http://www.obituarycoding.com/> and "click" to the PGCS Database page. The first seven characters are listed there in alphanumeric order and opposite each is the name and address of the newspaper. The last eight characters of the code are the publication date. There is no cost to anyone except a very small, one-time charge to the paper for its unique and exclusive identity code. One hang-up is that one ardent genealogist or historian who sends a letter to the local paper doesn't truly make a great impression -- gets one vote in but hardly buries the editor in a landslide. What is really a better approach is to receive the material from PGCS and use it to alert your local genealogical or history society, get the matter on its agenda for the next meeting, and then "move" that the entire membership take the challenge to register on the PGCS Web site and each get the personal letter to the newspaper, ready to sign and mail. This makes for at least a small landslide -- and with luck will convince the paper to adopt PGCS coding. Just think, their headline can read, oxymoronically, "Our Obits Now Live Forever!" And the Quixotic octogenarian will very much appreciate the help. It has been a tough fight and I really can't do it alone. I need your help. Visit <http://www.obituarycoding.com/> yourself and get the full story. Then register and, using the material I will send you, ask your paper to adopt PGCS coding for its obits.