United States Death Memorials and Lists of Deaths in Newspapers (National Institute)

Memorials
Memorials are often written a short time after the death of the individual by someone close to that individual. They are not always written by a family member. There have been entries written by students of a deceased teacher, for instance. Often the memorials do not give you much in the way of history on the individual, but they do give a great insight into the character of the deceased. You may also learn about the deceased’s involvement in local charitable or social organizations.

As we see here the author of this memorial for Edward P Rudd is full of high praise for his character. Unusual to many memorials though is the details about his father. Like most memorials though, the bulk of the writing is devoted to showing his upstanding business practices and likeability.

Other times the memorial may address some special ceremony, especially if the deceased was a highly respected member of some benevolent or social organization.

In addition to showing respect for the deceased, this memorial is a wealth of information about the Masons and some of the members at the time of J.B. Yates Sommers’ death. This memorial identifies the Masonic lodge to which Sommers was a member, a crucial piece of information when investigating an ancestor’s fraternal organization involvement. There are other less helpful notices of death.

Official Lists of Dead
There are times though when all we have is a list of individuals who died on a given date or as a result of a given event. This is especially true of the soldiers who perished, especially during the American Civil War. These lists are not without their benefits though. They at least close the book on an ancestor, supplying you with an indication of when and maybe even where your ancestor died.

Figure 12: Civil War List The Richmond Enquirer and Examiner, November 19, 1869



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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course US: Newspaper Records offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

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