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

Thank you for that information!! ----- Original Message ----- From: Debbi Geer <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 6:34 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 >