The question you pose is do you charge for the research to find the obit or just to print it. I see no reason why one should not charge for labor and to charge $0.07 cents a copy. Most situations are that the state historical society will have copied the newspapers on film. For example, the Pittsfield Library has films of the papers that were done (I am sure) by some state org. Very seldom will a local paper have the old newspapers. They rely on the state to film them and distribute the film. In Colorado, you can buy the films of certain newspapers for certain periods for $32. When writing a history book, I bought the films and was able to use them to write the history and used the obits to profile certain people. The object of making money is not a sin. What is a sin is as in Colorado where, in a state organization, a law requires each copy made is $1.25. I paid $400 to get a school census. Does the Quincy Library have newspaper films and do they have volunteers that will copy them for you. I found that at certain times they did have volunteers that would do just that. I do not know if they still do. There is another facet. Most newspapers have ceased existence. I have found that one should look at all the papers that were in the town. You will find that every town had three newspapers at one time. Only one now exists in most cases. I have found sometimes one of them actually gave good information while the other gave very little. The real answer is: if you are depending on one local paper to have all the information, you are not digging deep enough. Look at the whole picture. By the way, the Quincy newspapers of old were not into obits. They were into making money. I found very little obit information in the older newspapers. ----- Original Message ----- From: janet <jlt@adams.net> To: <ILPIKE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2000 9:56 AM Subject: [ILPIKE] Obits > The Quincy Herald Whig (Adams County) newspaper now charges for obituaries. Will our great-grandchildren run into the same problems that we now run into when we try to find an obituary of our ancestors. I know they put very little info in some early obituaries I have found in late1800's. They might say " Jane Doe of this community passed away last week". > I realize they are in business to make money, but don't they get enough advertisement to at least cover obituaries. Our local, small town, once a week paper doesn't even charge for these. I'm wondering what we could do to encourage them to keep printing free obits since some families won't pay this fee to have Aunt Nellie put in the paper. What if she was the last of her family? Any suggestions? Letter to the editor perhaps? > Janet > >