I recently began a quest to find descendants for a friend.  I received the basic information and off I went in search of answers to a few basic questions.   When people give me information on a family, I always like to check what they give me for accuracy (facts do get mixed up sometimes).  One of the resources I love to use are obituaries.  Getting the snapshot on someone’s life can answer a lot of questions, it can also introduce more questions.

The best thing to remember about obituaries is that the information they provide also needs to be verified.  Nicknames, incorrect relationships and dates can add to the mystery.

Let’s come back to the family I was looking for, I found this most amazing obituary that not only told me basic information, but it provided the history of this person’s life with such details, that it made it so simple to verify it.

Not everyone has an obituary, but they might be mentioned in another obituary… thank goodness for indexes.  Yes there are flaws with indexes… but that’s a story for another day.

For more information on obituaries, I recommend you check out Hidden Sources by Laura Szucs Pfeiffer.