Old obituaries

[DeFilippis78]

Is it possible to find old obituaries online? Like from the 1900s and on? I tried a subscription to the newspaper archive website but cancelled it. They barely have any NJ papers. I think just the Brunswick area. I was hoping to find some obituaries for some genalogy links. Any tips?

Alicia

[johnnyonthespot]

Is it possible to find old obituaries online? Like from the 1900s and on? I tried a subscription to the newspaper archive website but cancelled it. They barely have any NJ papers. I think just the Brunswick area. I was hoping to find some obituaries for some genalogy links. Any tips?

Alicia

I have had very little luck with early obituaries - and by "early", I mean even as recently as the 1960's. If you know the place and approximate date of death, you may be able to find archived newspapers held by a local library, however you need to consider that the people we are researching were typically poor and for the most part did not speak English - under the circumstances, I expect that paid obituaries were not the norm.

As to newspaperarchive.com, I just want to say that I struck gold when I discovered that site. In total, I located over 30 newspaper articles concerning the arrest, conviction, sentencing to life in prison, and later full pardon of my paternal grandfather, who had been charged as complicit in a murder (actually, a drunken fight in which a man was stabbed to death)which occured in Maine not long after his arrival there in 1910. If it weren't for this pardon, my father never would have been born!

[DeFilippis78]

I never even considered the fact that people would have to pay for the obituaries. I kow we have to now ( my father that died recently had 2 obituaries that charged and arm and a leg) But I was forgetting to apply that to the past. Thanks for that tip.

That is awesome what you found on on newspaper archive. What history! My family stayed condensed in the cities of northern Jersey and NYC and I was shocked to see they didnt have any papers.

This genealogy is starting to make me feel like a full time detective

Alicia

[PeterTimber]

Alicia if you go to www.worldvitalrecords.com you can find among many things obituaries of individuals, immigrant arrivals but you have to be "a detective" in getting paying site to spill the beans as it were. =Peter=

[DeFilippis78]

Ill check that out too. Boy, you guys are a wealth of info!

Alicia

[johnnyonthespot]

I never even considered the fact that people would have to pay for the obituaries. I kow we have to now ( my father that died recently had 2 obituaries that charged and arm and a leg) But I was forgetting to apply that to the past. Thanks for that tip.

You may be able to find "Death Notices" - one or two line notices typically printed as a public service and without charge. But full-on obituaries I am not so certain about.

That is awesome what you found on on newspaper archive. What history! My family stayed condensed in the cities of northern Jersey and NYC and I was shocked to see they didnt have any papers.

I was aware of the story through oral family history but had almost no detail; in fact, I thought the incident took place in Boston. Newspaperarchive.com was a great resource but even so, searching was difficult because the newspapers often misspelled my grandfather's name and then the OCR used by newspaperarchive added its own errors into the process. Basically, I found a single article through the name search tool; everything else was found either by searching other facts gleaned from the first article or by slowly and patiently skimming through every available issue of the "Daily Kennebec Journal", "Lowell Sun" and "Fitchburg Daily Sentinel".

By the way, to get some idea of the way our ancestors were treated in this country, you only need to read the following headline:

[align=center]
SUSPECTS CAUGHT

The Italians Wanted By Livermore Falls

In Connection with the Alleged
Murder There

Captured After Lively Chase - Taken
To Farmington Jail

Livermore Falls, Me., May 9 - The
three missing Italians, wanted in con-
nection with the alleged murder
of Domenico Ventrelli ...
[/align]

Compare this to today, when it is considered politically incorrect to discuss the cultural identity of international terrorists.

[DeFilippis78]

Oh forget it...if you mentioned someones nationality specific like that the ACLU would be all over you, slapping you with a lawsuit. They mention origin but in a more pleasant way.

The Italians were the dirt of the country for a while there. Most immigrants were. Weve come along way! Now everyone on the planet wants to claim "im italian"

Alicia

[PeterTimber]

...Dear John in a way it propelled immigrants to excel in whatever endeavors they engaged in to establish their credentials as worthwhile people fully endowed with faculties and abilities. Italians were the first Mediterranean people, catholic,dark and swarthy, running from poverty and ignorance from Garibaldi's pillage and rape of ther Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. They were Catholic (?) hostile to the church and more.

So it had a benefit which we enjoy today. =Peter=

[johnnyonthespot]

...Dear John in a way it propelled immigrants to excel in whatever endeavors they engaged in to establish their credentials as worthwhile people fully endowed with faculties and abilities. Italians were the first Mediterranean people, catholic,dark and swarthy, running from poverty and ignorance from Garibaldi's pillage and rape of ther Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. They were Catholic (?) hostile to the church and more.

So it had a benefit which we enjoy today. =Peter=

True, true.

But, were it not for two men (the state prison's chaplain and, of all people, the warden), who came to believe that my grandfather was innocent and fought to have his case re-opened, I would not be here today discussing this with you!