What is the oldest obituary in your database? I suspect that there are none older than 1870. I do not know when publishing obituaries began. I am looking for information on a death before 1870. Gerald

Gerald, I am not sure who you are asking but I will toss in what I know about obituaries. Some researchers find copies of obituaries at Ancestry.com or maybe other sources. I use Newspaperarchive.com and obituaries posted from The Republican (at the Ruth Enlow Library site). I also have two three-ring binders full of copies of obituaries (I purchased these copies from the Garrett Co. Historical Society for my personal research.) I transcribe obituaries from all three sources. The Republican started in 1877. In Garrett County there was also the Mountain Democrat - I am not sure when it started and ended publication; there may have been other newspapers too (but I can't name them). I can't give you the date when newspapers started using an "Obituary Column". Some of the very early newspapers have death notices scattered throughout the paper. Some may only say "Mrs. So and So died Thurs. last". Prominent people often had a short article written about their death. Of course, many people had no mention of their deaths published at all. So, it is very hard to put a date on the "earliest obituary". I would like to add that I think a lot of researchers have at least one copy of an obituary for someone in their line. It would be nice if everyone transcribed and posted those obituaries. Genealogy works best when shared. -----Original Message----- From: mdgarret-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:mdgarret-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Gmend1908@cs.com Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 10:53 PM To: mdgarret@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MDGARRET] Casteel (obituary) What is the oldest obituary in your database? I suspect that there are none older than 1870. I do not know when publishing obituaries began. I am looking for information on a death before 1870. Gerald