Dear listmates, The following points need clarification: >Check out the WPA Files in the Belleville Public Library. The St. Clair >Genealogy Society cuts each obit and attaches it to a 3 x 5 card which is >then filed in a bank of file cabinets. The obituary file since 1940, locally known as the WPA file at the Belleville Public Library, is a Library project, not a St. Clair County Genealogical Society project. The confusion may result in the fact that SCCGS members happen to be the ones adding to the file at present. Pre-1940 the file was one of the projects of the Works Progress Administration and included more than obituary abstracts of *Belleville* residents and those with strong Belleville connections from a variety of Belleville newspapers (usually predecessors of the Belleville Advocate). Obituaries of long-lived, usually prominent, pioneers from out-lying areas were sometimes included in the file as well. Perhaps just as importantly, pre-1940 news items relating to Belleville politics, disasters, antiquities, civic organizations, county government and the like were also abstracted. This file is a very valuable resource. After the WPA project ended, (post 1940 in this case) the library wanted to continue the file but a decision was made to include only obituaries, not the news items. There was a short period time where the actual obit was cut out and pasted onto 3x5 cards. This practice was stopped many years ago and limited to 1. a code for the newspaper carrying the obit (N.D.=News Democrat), 2. the name and age of the deceased, 3.date the obit appeared. For the past several years, the obits are indexed in a computer instead of 3x5 cards and a printout is periodically provided. >These files include all the obits >for the Belleville and East St. Louis newspapers. Maybe not all of them >but a darn good pile, especially the most current. The East St. Louis _Journal_ obits have been indexed, again a library undertaking, and basically the sole work of Harold Fiebig and his wife. When that project was completed, this team began reading the earlier East St. Louis newspapers of shorter duration for obits as well. In addition to the basic indexed information as above, this file includes a page number on which the obit is located, a real time-saver. The Fiebigs included all deaths in the index regardless of the town in which the person lived. The Belleville obituary index is far from all-inclusive. In the 1880s outlying towns would submit news items that sometimes included obituaries or at least a death mention. Submissions were irregular. Not all communities participated. On occasion the death of a prominent pioneer was abstracted. The majority of outlying deaths were not abstracted or indexed. Researchers seeking an obituary should first check the Belleville Newspaper Abstract File and Obituary Index file. If a card is *not found*, be sure to read each extant issue of the newspaper to see if an obituary really is there. A month's worth of the weekly paper is not too much.