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Archiver > QUAKER-ROOTS > 1999-03 > 0920909057


From: "Keith/Connie Street" <>
Subject: Re: Eastmans Genealogy Nwsletter
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 10:04:17 -0600


Do you live in a big city?? I've never heard of paper refusing to print
family info in an obit.

For a few years our local newspaper charged for printing obits and there
wasn't much info in them, but the policy has changed and you get the family
stuff now. The problem is that you only get the info the family wants you
to have. It really irks me when it says the man was married, say, three
years ago, names that wife, then names his grown children and never gives a
hint of who the first wife was.

You wonder how many other details were left out.

(One time I was in the hospital and heard this woman telling the nurses not
to allow her step son in the room. That week her husband died and I watched
for the obit. Sure enough, none of the man's children were named. Imagine!
A few days later a new obit was printed with all the family included.)

What really gets to me is that you learn so little about the person in an
obit. It always says where the person worked. But did he like the job or
did he hate? Was it something he was good at or something he just stumbled
through to make living? What did he really enjoy - what made him laugh -
what was he like- those things can't be found in an obit.

Our paper does include the year when it prints obits and weddings, which is
a big help, but if the person doing the clipping doesn't include the name of
the paper, you still don't have all the data you need. Even so, I think a
numbering system would be very cumbersome.

Connie Street


>It's too bad that obits aren't written as they were 75 years ago, detailing
>the life of the deceased, and naming the parents. Some newspapers refuse
to
>print these when submitted, and edit out the important information.

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