Mary, I did have luck looking in the German papers--specifically the Milwaukee Herold on microfilm at the Central library. They also have another German paper or two. I was checking the early 1900s for my information, say 1902-1920 for three obits. Now, I don't speak German AT ALL, but I could locate the obit by finding the page (usually near the end of the paper) that had square notices with names. For the content, "kinder" or children's names are listed, for example. Then you might see "mutter" or "grossmutter" which you can probably tell is "mother" and "grandmother." Any other specifics (days, months, etc) I checked the dictionary and figured it out. You could ask a high school German teacher or who knows who else on-line. I have also found obits in the "Kuryer Polski" at the library by following the same procedure, although I know a bit of Polish so maybe that was easier. It's do-able! Karen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mary R. Frank" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 5:31 PM Subject: Re: [WiMilwau] Obituary Research > Bob, have you (or has anyone else on this list) ever done much > investigating of the German language papers to see if this is equally > true for those papers? My German isn't strong enough to do this (not > yet, anyway), but am just wondering if anyone has found them in the > German papers. > > mrf > > > Laura Bender wrote: > > > Thanks for the information Bob. It sounds like slim to none for me then. > > But I can check it off my list of search spots then! > > > > Laura > > On May 2, 2005, at 12:05 PM, [email protected] wrote: > > > >> Laura, I have read obits and death notices often at the Central > >> Library but > >> they are, of course on microfilm. You get them (the films) on the > >> 2nd floor, > >> down past the Humanities Room. Let me warn you though, the papers > >> were not > >> as involved in printing obituaries and/or death notices back then. > >> I found > >> that many times there were no Death Notices at all and only > >> obituaries for the > >> so-called famous people of Milwaukee. Bob > >> > >> > > > > > ==== WIMILWAU Mailing List ==== > For subscribe/unsubscribe and other general list information, please see > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~sewis/wimilwau.htm > > ============================== > Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the > areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. > Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx > >

Thanks Karen (and Bob). I guess my real question is whether anyone has done enough German newspaper research to know whether our German ancestors were MORE inclined to put an obit into those papers, or if the obits are equally sparse before 1920's. I imagine there wasn't always money around to do these obits, in any case, but just wondered if there seemed to be more of them in those German papers than in the Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel. Tom & Karen Duffy wrote: >Mary, > I did have luck looking in the German papers--specifically the Milwaukee >Herold on microfilm at the Central library. They also have another German >paper or two. I was checking the early 1900s for my information, say >1902-1920 for three obits. Now, I don't speak German AT ALL, but I could >locate the obit by finding the page (usually near the end of the paper) that >had square notices with names. For the content, "kinder" or children's >names are listed, for example. Then you might see "mutter" or "grossmutter" >which you can probably tell is "mother" and "grandmother." Any other >specifics (days, months, etc) I checked the dictionary and figured it out. >You could ask a high school German teacher or who knows who else on-line. > I have also found obits in the "Kuryer Polski" at the library by >following the same procedure, although I know a bit of Polish so maybe that >was easier. > It's do-able! > >Karen > > > > > >