Thanks Debbi, your a big help. Darrell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Debbi Geer" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 7:34 PM Subject: Re: [ILMADISO-L] Alton Telegraph > Depending on the social status of the deceased is how > the obituary was published in the early days. I know > that there are some in the late 1800's published. The > key is that until around the 1950's there was no > organization of the obits. They just put them where > they wanted to. Some obits appeared on page 2 while > another could have been on page 10 and yet another on > page 12. This means you just have to read title by > title, page by page until you find one. And then if > it's not the right one, continue in the same fashion > until you find another. > > Then if the deceased lived in a community which had a > correspondent, the community news column may have been > published only once a week or once every two weeks. > Any deaths from that community would have been part of > that community's news. Sometimes you have to look for > 2 or 3 weeks worth of issues to find any mention of a > death. Sometimes it was a vague mention or just a > comment that "Jane Doe was buried last Friday" or > "Jane Doe who died last Monday was buried on > Wednesday". You may get lucky and a complete > historical obit is found in these community news > columns. > > Places where the obits were placed from the 1950's > forward include the end of the sports section (before > the want ads), after the editorial pages and the last > page of the first section. > > Also until the obits were all placed in one section, > you may have to read an article which doesn't seem > appropriate. I have a great-great-aunt who accidently > shot husband during an argument. This domestic > situation was mentioned in an article on page two and > didn't seem like anything I should have been looking > for, however, I read it just for curiosity. I then > recognized the names of the couple and kept reading > and there was a brief obit at the end. That's all > that was published (in 1903). The strange thing on > this was that his gravestone has 1902. It was just > luck that I let curiosity lead me. > > > Debbi Geer > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games > http://sports.yahoo.com > > > ==== ILMADISO Mailing List ==== > Search Engine for Genealogy Madison County Illinois > http://www.google.com/search?q=Genealogy+Madison+County+Illinois&btnG=Google +Search > >