How true! My grandfather's obit from 1923 is riddled with errors. His death certificate even lists "Mary INGRAM" as his mother, when her real name is "May". This man's father's obit of 1950 misses several children and grandchildren (That's because his surviving widow wrote the obit, and purposely omitted all children and grandchildren from his 3 previous marriages). These simple errors and omissions really hurt me in my search progress. The best source of info I've found so far, (when searching for minor details) is the divorce records that the Knox county court house had. The 1890's court reporter documented page after page of testimony of many people involved --- names and ages of children, names of close relatives, previous spouses, place of employemnt & work ethics, boyfriends, girlfriends, neighbors, friends, addresses, assets etc. I was in shock over all that I found there. [email protected] writes: > It should also be noted that obituaries are prepared by friends or relatives > of the deceased, and often contain glaring errors. The same goes for death > certificates, prepared by folks still grieving. For the best, correct > information, try for Marriage or birth records, both done at a happy time, > buy the person himself.

How true! I searched for years for an obituary for a grandfather who died in neighboring Schuyler Co., IL-even hired a researcher. He had been only 38 years old and my 'inherited' notes said he died accidentally. Nothing was found concerning Isaac N. Foster. Several months later the researcher sent me a newspaper clipping found in the Schuyler paper several published a week after his death. Looking for Isaac Foster, she missed the 1/3 page story regarding the suicide of one Newton Foster. I learned all the horrid details from the printed account and learned the N. stood for Newton. He'd never gone by his given name, Isaac! We were able to find his burial location from the article also. Cindy foster