Blog - The Ancestor Hunt

Free Oklahoma Obituaries and Obituary Index Links

8/21/2019

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and sometimes more importantly - information about the relatives of the deceased's family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists, a great number of indexes to death information and obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes or index lists provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the obituary clipping or transcription is even provided.

Below is a list of links to Oklahoma obituary indexes, an alternative means to newspaper searching to find obituary information. If the newspaper clippings are available, or if the obituaries are transcribed, they will be denoted. Please be aware that if you find a desired obituary in an index, that the holder of the actual obituary (e.g., library or genealogical society) may charge a small fee to send you a copy of the obituary itself.

(Updated August, 2019; recently added links are in BOLD)

General U.S.

Oklahoma

If you wish to search this state's historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Oklahoma Online Historical Newspapers Summary

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Free Alabama Obituaries and Obituary Index Links

8/21/2019

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and sometimes more importantly - information about the relatives of the deceased's family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists, a great number of indexes to death information and obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes or index lists provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the obituary clipping or transcription is even provided.

Below is a list of links to Alabama obituary indexes, an alternative means to newspaper searching to find obituary information. If the newspaper clippings are available, or if the obituaries are transcribed, they will be denoted. Please be aware that if you find a desired obituary in an index, that the holder of the actual obituary (e.g., library or genealogical society) may charge a small fee to send you a copy of the obituary itself.

(Updated August, 2019; recently added links are in BOLD)

General U.S.

Alabama

If you wish to search this state's historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Alabama Online Historical Newspapers Summary

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Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

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Free Florida Obituaries and Obituary Index Links

8/21/2019

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and sometimes more importantly - information about the relatives of the deceased's family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists, a great number of indexes to death information and obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes or index lists provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the obituary clipping or transcription is even provided.

Below is a list of links to Florida obituary indexes, an alternative means to newspaper searching to find obituary information. If the newspaper clippings are available, or if the obituaries are transcribed, they will be denoted. Please be aware that if you find a desired obituary in an index, that the holder of the actual obituary (e.g., library or genealogical society) may charge a small fee to send you a copy of the obituary itself.

(Updated August, 2019; recently added links are in BOLD)

General U.S.

Florida

If you wish to search this state's historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Florida Online Historical Newspapers Summary

______________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

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Free Tennessee Obituaries and Obituary Index Links

8/20/2019

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and sometimes more importantly - information about the relatives of the deceased's family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists, a great number of indexes to death information and obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes or index lists provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the obituary clipping or transcription is even provided.

Below is a list of links to Tennessee obituary indexes, an alternative means to newspaper searching to find obituary information. If the newspaper clippings are available, or if the obituaries are transcribed, they will be denoted. Please be aware that if you find a desired obituary in an index, that the holder of the actual obituary (e.g., library or genealogical society) may charge a small fee to send you a copy of the obituary itself.

(Updated August, 2019; recently added links are in BOLD)

General U.S.

Tennessee

If you wish to search this state's historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Tennessee Online Historical Newspapers Summary

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Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

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180 Free Obituary and Obituary Index Links for the New England States

8/19/2019

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and sometimes mote importantly - information about the relatives of the deceased's family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists, a great number of indexes to death information and obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes often provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the obituary clipping is even provided.

So not only can we search old newspapers for these gems, we can get transcriptions and get directed to the location of the obituaries from these indexes.

Here are alternative means to newspaper searching to find obituary information, listed by the link to each state's list of free links:

(Updated August 2019; Number of databases and new updates are denoted)

Connecticut Obituaries and Obituary Index Links (31 total, 8 new)
Maine Obituaries and Obituary Index Links (47 total, 11 new)
Massachusetts Obituaries and Obituary Index Links (44 total, 16 new)
New Hampshire Obituaries and Obituary Index Links (24 total, 3 new)
Rhode Island Obituaries and Obituary Index Links (12 total, 2 new)
Vermont Obituaries and Obituary Index Links (21 total, 2 new)

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

______________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

______________________________________________________

Free Massachusetts Obituaries and Obituary Index Links

8/19/2019

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and sometimes more importantly - information about the relatives of the deceased's family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists, a great number of indexes to death information and obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes or index lists provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the obituary clipping or transcription is even provided.

Below is a list of links to Massachusetts obituary indexes, an alternative means to newspaper searching to find obituary information. If the newspaper clippings are available, or if the obituaries are transcribed, they will be denoted. Please be aware that if you find a desired obituary in an index, that the holder of the actual obituary (e.g., library or genealogical society) may charge a small fee to send you a copy of the obituary itself.

(Updated August, 2019; recently added links are in BOLD)

General U.S.

Massachusetts

If you wish to search this state's historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Massachusetts Online Historical Newspapers Summary

______________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

______________________________________________________

Free New Hampshire Obituaries and Obituary Index Links

8/17/2019

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and sometimes more importantly - information about the relatives of the deceased's family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists, a great number of indexes to death information and obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes or index lists provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the obituary clipping or transcription is even provided.

Below is a list of links to New Hampshire obituary indexes, an alternative means to newspaper searching to find obituary information. If the newspaper clippings are available, or if the obituaries are transcribed, they will be denoted. Please be aware that if you find a desired obituary in an index, that the holder of the actual obituary (e.g., library or genealogical society) may charge a small fee to send you a copy of the obituary itself.

(Updated August, 2019; recently added links are in BOLD)

General U.S.

New Hampshire

If you wish to search this state's historic newspapers for obituaries, click on New Hampshire Online Historical Newspapers Summary

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Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

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Historic or Historical? That is the Question

8/16/2019

Source: grammarly.com

As genealogists, we deal with history, so naturally we use the words historic and historical.

Sometimes interchangeably, and therefore incorrectly.

I am a (hopefully) past transgressor of this crime. But through developing better word habits, I think I have overcome this error. If you read through some of my past articles on this website, you may find me to be a prevaricator relating to this offense, but only because I haven't taken the time to edit past articles using these two words.

Here's the deal - as genealogists, we are interested in all thing historical about our ancestors. In the course of our research, we will find that there are historic events that they either participated in or most certainly shaped their lives.

According to Writing Explained,

Historic refers to something that is very important or significant in history.
Historical refers to something that took place in the past, regardless of importance

William Safire once said, “Any past event is historical, but only the most memorable ones are historic.”

Hopefully this helps.

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How to Find Historical Obituaries

8/16/2019

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and more importantly - information about the relatives of the deceased's family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.

For a good summary of what kind of pertinent information you can find in obituaries, click on 32 Reasons Why Searching for Obituaries is Like Finding Gold

In the old days, finding obituaries required flipping though old newspapers in libraries or newspaper rooms. It was a tedious process, but all we had. Today, this is called “browsing”.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians, and archivists, these old newspapers began to be microfilmed, and more recently, digitally scanned. And the microfilms have been scanned as well. So now, flipping through these digital representations of the old newspapers is much more easily accomplished.

With the addition of Optical Character Recognition (OCR), dots on a newspaper page can now be interpreted as letters or symbols, forming words, and complete articles. And with the advent of crowdsourcing and text correction, the OCR results can now be improved by users of online newspaper collections.

Where are Obituaries?

In short, obituaries can be found in four places:

You can still find original newspapers in libraries and archives
Microform representation of newspapers can be found in libraries and archives.
Digitized online newspaper collections that are provided by libraries, archives, and many commercial and other suppliers.
Obituary and Obituary Index collections that are provided by libraries, genealogical and historical societies, and general representations in free online sites such as FamilySearch and Rootsweb. Many of the indexes might represent entries in scrapbooks and file folders held at libraries and societies.

Where are Online Obituaries Found?

The creators of online obituary collections include:

Newspaper scanning entities
Online Newspapers
Public and Academic Libraries
Nursing Homes
Churches
Coroners
Mortuaries and Funeral Homes
Genealogical and Historical Societies
Museums
Fraternal organizations
School & Alumni Associations

Obituary Indexes and Obtaining the Obituary

Obituary Indexes are created by people patient enough to go through old obituaries regardless of their source and capture (at a minimum) the name of the deceased and the publication name and date of the newspaper where the obituary originally resided. With that minimal information you can browse or search the newspaper issue for the representation of the original obituary. Often, additional information is included in the index, such as death date, death location, birth date, etc.

Nomenclature can be an issue when dealing with obituaries and obituary indexes. For example, is a Death Notice the same as an Obituary? Is a Death Index the same as an Obituary Index?

I would encourage you to read What is the Difference Between an Obituary, a Death Notice, an Obituary Index and a Death Index?

So now that you find an obituary from an index you want to get your hands on, what do you do?

If you have the name of the newspaper and the publication date, you can browse or search that newspaper for the obit. As mentioned earlier, you can browse originals, scroll through microfilm, or browse through a digital representation of the newspaper, available at a library computer or online.

If you searched or browsed through an obituary index at a library or online, often that institution will have clippings in a book or file folders and for a small fee will make a copy (digital or otherwise) and email or mail it to you.

Online Obituary Sites for Fairly Recent Obituaries

In the last 20 years or so, many online obituary aggregator sites have cropped up, such as Legacy, and original online obituary “publishers”, such as Tributes. These types of sites are the future for obituary “publishing”. Because of the cost of contributing newspaper obituaries and the diminishing paper subscribers, most newspapers now publish obits in their online sites.

I would encourage you to read What is the Future of Obituaries? for more information.

Obituary Collector Sites

There are also “Obituary Collectors” who have sites that you can search. Many of them charge a small fee to download a transcription, or the sites are full of ads, which makes navigating the sites somewhat difficult.

The Ancestor Hunt and Obituaries

Besides general genealogical topics, this website began in earnest over 5 years ago researching and listing links to free online historical newspaper collections. Today there are over 33,000 titles from the U.S. and Canada available. Click on the Newspaper Links Page for the lists of links.

About two years ago, I began collecting links to historical obituaries freely available online. Also, links to obituary indexes have been collected. Currently there are about 3,000 links to free obituary and obituary index sites. Click on the Obituaries Page for the lists of links.

Some of my greatest breakthroughs in my personal genealogy research have been because of obituaries. Hopefully you will have the same good fortune.

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Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

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NEH Announces 2019 New Funding for Chronicling America and the National Digital Newspaper Program

8/16/2019

Every early August, the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) announces their grant awards for the year. This year they awarded $29.1 Million for 215 humanities projects nationwide.

This is great news for we users of Chronicling America, because very year about a dozen or more states receive grants to digitize additional newspapers that will be aided to Chronicling America.

And next year, new grant recipients Rhode island, Wyoming and the Virgin Islands will be offering digitized newspapers via Chronicling America!

This year, to "Support the creation of a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1690 and 1963, from all states and U.S. territories", 11 grants, totaling $2.7 million were awarded.

Below is a state by state summary of their project that in conjunction with the National Digital Newspaper Program, that results in the additions of more pages to Chronicling America.

This is taken from NEH Office of Communications document regarding each award. The complete press release can be found HERE

Arkansas

Project Title: Arkansas Digital Newspaper Program
Project Description: The digitization of 100,000 pages of Arkansas newspapers published from 1819 through 1922, as part of the state’s continuing participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Connecticut

Project Title: Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of Connecticut newspapers, dating from 1690 to 1963, as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Delaware

Project Title: Delaware Digital Newspaper Program
Project Description: The digitization of 100,000 pages from three historically significant Delaware newspaper titles, published from 1904 to 1963, as part of the state’s continuing participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Florida, Puerto Rico, and Virgin islands

Project Title: U.S. Caribbean and Ethnic Florida Newspaper Project
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of newspapers published in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands of the United States in participation with the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Georgia

Project Title: Georgia National Digital Newspaper Program Phase II
Project Description: The digitization of 110,000 pages of Georgia newsprint, published between 1690 and 1963, as part of the Digital Library of Georgia’s (DLG) participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Minnesota

Project Title: Digitization of Minnesota Newspapers, 1690–1963
Project Description: The digitization of 100,000 pages of historic Minnesota newspapers published between 1690 and 1963 as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Rhode island

Project Title: Rhode Island Historical Newspaper Digitization Project
Project Description: Digitization of 50,000 pages of Rhode Island newspapers published before 1923, as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Virginia

Project Title: Virginia Digital Newspaper Program
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of Virginia newspapers, dating from 1690 to 1963, as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

West Virginia

Project Title: West Virginia Digital Newspaper Project Cycle 5
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of West Virginia Newspapers, dating from 1790 to 1923, as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Wisconsin

Project Title: Wisconsin National Digital Newspaper Program
Project Description: The digitization of approximately 100,000 pages of newspapers published in Wisconsin from 1836 to 1963, as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

Wyoming

Project Title: Wyoming Digital Newspaper Project
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of Wyoming newspapers, dating from 1863 to 1963, as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

This means an additional 1,060,000 pages will be added to Chronicling America as a result of these grants. Great news!

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